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ANNUAL 

lincoln   dinner  of  the 

Republican  club  of  the 

city  of  new  york 


FE BRUARY  TWEiFrH,  R1NFFEEN  FOURTEEN 


Jw   MO 


PROCEEDINGS  AT  THE  TWENTY- 
EIGHTH  ANNUAL  LINCOLN 
DINNER  OF  THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 
OF  THE  CITY  OF  NEW  YORK. 
IN  COMMEMORATION  OF  THE  BIRTH  OF 
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  WALDORF-ASTORIA, 
THURSDAY,  FEBRUARY  TWELFTH 
NINETEEN   HUNDRED  AND  FOURTEEN. 


MEMBERS  AND  GUESTS 


42&448ohdSt 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 


EMANCIPATOR 


MARTYR 


BORN  FEBRUARY  12.  1809 


ADMITTED  TO  THE  BAR  1837 


ELECTED  TO  CONGRESS  1846 


ELECTED    SIXTEENTH   PRESIDENT  OF 
THE  UNITED  STATES.  NOVEMBER.  1860 


EMANCIPATION  PROCLAMATION 
JANUARY  1.  1863 


RE-ELECTED  PRESIDENT   OF  THE 
UNITED  STATES.  NOVEMBER,  1864 


ASSASSINATED  APRIL  14,  1865 


Officers  of  the  Club 

President 
JAMES  R.  SHEFFIELD 

Vice-Presidents 

First— JOSEPH  H.  EMERY 

Second— ROBERT  W.  BONYNGE 

Third— CHARLES  O.  MAAS 

Corresponding  Secretary 
LOUIS  H.  ROWE 

Recording  Secretary 
HENRY  W.  GODDARD 

Treasurer 
JAMES  L.  WANDLING 


Lincoln  Dinner  Committee 


CHAS.  O.  MAAS 
Chairman 

GEORGE  C.  AUSTIN 

Vice-Chairman 

J.  EDGAR  LEAYCRAFT 
Treasurer 


HENRY  BIRRELL 
Secretary 


William  S.  Bennet 
Chailes  L.  Bernheimer 
Herman  W.  Beyer 
Philip  Bloch 
Robert  W.  Bonynge 
John  Boyle,  Jr. 
William  M.  Calder 
Lauren  Carroll 
Morris  Cooper 
Edward  F.  Cragin 
Francis  C.  Dale 
John  A.  Dutton 
Edward  R.  Finch 
John  J.  Fleming 


Paul  G.  Fourman 
Theodore  P.  Gilman 
Jacob  Halstead 
Joseph  L.  Hollander 
George  W.  Kavanaugh 
Walter  E.  Kelley 
Joseph  Levenson 
Luther  B.  Little 
Taylor  More 
George  W.  Morgan 
Robert  C.  Morris 
Louis  Runkel 
R.  A.  C.  Smith 
Lloyd  Paul  Stryker 


J.  VAN  VECHTEN  OLCOTT,  tx-officio 


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t 


Speakers 

Honorable  J.  VAN  VECHTEN  OLCOTT 
President  of  the  Club,  presiding 

Qrace 
The  Reverend  WILLIAM  CARTER.  D.D. 

'Uoast 
The  President  of  the  United  States 

j4ddresses: 
Honorable  EDWARD  C.  STOKES 

Honorable  NATHAN  GOFF 
Honorable  WILLIAM  E.  BORAH 


ADDRESS  OF 

Hon.  J.  VAN  VECHTEN  OLCOTT 

President  of  the  Club 


The  Toastmaster:  Reverend  Dr.  Carter  will  say 
grace. 

The  Reverend  William  Carter,  D.D :  Oh,  Lord,  our 
God,  our  hearts  are  full  of  thanksgiving  to-night,  not 
only  for  these  material  blessings  which  Thou  art  giving 
unto  us,  but  also  for  the  great  spiritual  blessing  and 
spiritual  force  whose  memory  we  are  here  to  observe. 
We  ask  that  Thou  wilt  give  Thy  blessing,  not  only  upon 
the  food  of  which  we  partake,  but  that  Thou  wilt  give 
Thy  blessing  unto  this  occasion ;  that  Thou  wilt  raise  our 
hearts  and  our  lives  to  higher  levels,  as  we  consider  the 
high  levels  unto  which  that  great  soul  reached  in  the 
crisis  of  this  great  nation.  We  thank  Thee,  Lord,  for 
that  light,  for  that  character.  We  thank  Thee  for  the 
blessings  we  enjoy  now  because  he  lived,  because  he 
died  for  the  nation  that  he  loved.  We  ask  that  Thou  wilt 
receive  our  thanks,  not  only  for  this  of  which  we  are 
about  to  partake,  but  also  for  the  gift  of  that  great  heart, 
that  great  soul  whose  memory  we  honor  and  revere  to- 
night.   And  all  we  ask  is  for  Thy  name's  sake.     Amen. 

The  Toastmaster:  Gentlemen,  the  Republican  Club 
thanks  you  for  this  demonstration.  (Applause.)  I  ap- 
preciate perfectly  it  is  given  to  me  as  the  chief  executive 
officer  of  the  club. 

[9] 


The  Republican  Club 

Our  first  duty  and  our  equal  pleasure  is  to  drink  to  the 
health  of  the  President  of  the  United  States,  and  I  ask 
you  to  rise  and  do  so. 

(Toast  to  President  of  the  United  States.) 

The  Toastmaster :  Ladies  and  gentlemen:  This  is 
the  twenty-eighth  Lincoln  Dinner  of  the  Republican 
Club.  The  Republican  Club  is  in  existence  to  prove  posi- 
tively that  the  Republican  party  exists  as  a  fighting 
force.  (Applause.)  The  party  is  at  times  depressed 
because  it  meets  defeat,  but  the  party  has  always  insisted 
that  should  not  be  permanent.  The  Republican  party 
has  a  long  line  of  principles  which  have  been  enunciated 
in  its  several  platforms,  and  has  fulfilled  the  declarations 
of  its  conventions  assembled,  as  enunciated  from  time  to 
time  since  1856  in  those  platforms.  They  have  not  shilly- 
shallied. They  have  always  been  positive.  Just  at  pres- 
ent there  is  some  defection  in  the  ranks  of  the  Republican 
party,  but  the  Republican  party,  as  an  existent  entity, 
has  declined  foolishly  to  flirt  with  people  who  would  seek 
to  destroy  its  original  principles.  (Applause.)  We  will 
welcome  back  to  the  fold  former  members  who  have  been 
errant,  but  for  the  sake  of  getting  the  most  illustrious  of 
them  back  we  will  not  yield  one  tithe  of  the  principle  of 
our  fathers.    (Applause.) 

All  of  us  feel  disgusted  when  a  useless  person  brags 
of  his  ancestors,  if  he  is  not  doing  something  to  make  the 
world  better  himself,  but  none  of  us  is  so  indifferent  to 
our  forbears  that  we  would  think  for  one  moment  of  not 
having  pride  in  the  great  works  that  have  been  done  by  our 
predecessors.  Therefore,  when  we  come  on  the  twenty- 
eighth  dinner  to  celebrate  Lincoln's  birth,  we  are  stating 
to  the  entire  community  that  we  are  following  the  prin- 
ciples of  Abraham  Lincoln,  because  we  are  seeking  to  do 
something,  as  he  did,  for  the  benefit  of  mankind.  (Ap- 
plause.)    We  are  proud  of  him.     We  are  proud  of  his 

MO] 


Address  of  Hon.  J.  Van  Vechten  Olcott 

successors.  We  are  proud  of  all  the  Republican  Presi- 
dents that  have  followed  him,  because  they  were  treading 
in  his  steps.  We  are  taking  things  as  they  come,  as  he 
did.  Just  at  this  moment  I  want  to  read  a  letter  that 
comes  from  Robert  T.  Lincoln.  Most  of  you  gentlemen 
know  that  on  every  possible  occasion,  when  we  have  had 
a  Lincoln  dinner,  we  have  striven  to  obtain  the  presence 
of  the  son  of  his  illustrious  father.  He  has  always  de- 
clined from  principles  perhaps  of  over-wrought  modesty, 
but  at  any  rate  he  has  always  felt  that  it  would  be 
scarcely  possible  for  him  to  be  present,  when  a  man  with 
whom  he  had  the  personal  relations  of  son  to  father  was 
being  glorified.  This  is  his  last  letter,  written  to  Mr. 
Henry  Birrell,  the  Secretary  of  the  Lincoln  Dinner  Com- 
mittee. It  is  a  good  thing  for  us  to  read  this  at  this 
present  time. 

"My  Dear  Sir : 

"I  express  again  my  deep  appreciation  of  the  many 
times  repeated  invitation  of  The  Republican  Club  to  at- 
tend its  annual  dinner,  in  commemoration  of  my  father's 
birthday.  For  the  reasons  which  I  have  so  often  given,  I 
must  refrain  from  accepting  it  and  expressing  in  person 
the  gratitude  I  feel  to  all  of  the  members  for  using  this 
particular  occasion  to  indicate  their  loyalty  to  our  Repub- 
lican institutions,  whose  preservations  were  the  great 
object  of  my  father's  life." 

Gentlemen,  the  Republican  Club  never  apologizes  be- 
cause we  are  Republicans.  We  are  coming  back;  of 
course  we  are  coming  back.  Possibly  some  of  you  read 
even  the  returns  of  the  State  of  Iowa  when  they  had  an 
incidental  election  for  member  of  Congress.  In  a  district 
that  used  to  be  represented  by  a  Republican,  Mr.  Daw- 
son, and  when,  by  reason  of  this  wild  vagary  that  seemed 
to  spread  over  the  land,  a  new  so-called  party  had  arisen, 
which  knew  perfectly  well  it  could  only  defeat  the  Re- 

[II] 


The  Republican  Club 

publican  party  by  electing  a  Democrat,  it  made  that 
particular  district  Democratic,  and  yet  the  returns  came 
in  yesterday  morning,  gratifying  to  all  of  us  who  were 
just  watching  the  trend  of  time.  We  find  that  in  a  dis- 
trict which  only  last  year  gave  12,000  for  Roosevelt  and 
6,000  for  Taft  now  gives  and  elects  a  Democrat  by  only 
1,900  votes,  in  a  three-cornered  fight,  and  the  vote  of 
the  Progressive  party  falls  from  10,000  to  3,000.  (Ap- 
plause.) A  gentleman  a  little  while  ago  told  me  a  story. 
It  was  something  that  he  said,  and  he  is  distinctly  a  mod- 
est man,  although  he  is  an  organization  politician,  and 
the  story  went  about  like  this :  He  spoke  to  someone  and 
he  said:  "Why  are  you  in  favor  of  the  Progressive 
party?"  He  said.  "Because  I  blindly  follow  Roosevelt"; 
and  the  gentleman's  answer  was,  "That  is  the  only  way 
you  could  follow  him."  (Applause.)  Gentlemen,  please 
think  of  that.  It  sounds  flippant  for  one  to  tell  when  we 
are  talking  seriously  in  regard  to  Republican  affairs ;  but 
will  you  not  every  one  of  you  go  away  from  this  meeting 
(I  know  you  will  after  you  have  heard  these  men) — will 
you  not  go  away  from  this  meeting,  realizing  that  though 
perhaps  the  Republican  party  has  made  mistakes,  their 
principles  are  as  sound  as  any  rock  upon  which  a  build- 
ing may  be  built.      ( Applause. ) 

I  have  not  even  said  welcome  to  such  of  you  as  are  our 
guests.  I  would  rather  say  to  the  guests  who  are  here  to 
congratulate  themselves  that  they  are  here  in  a  real  Re- 
publican assembly.  That  you  are  here  as  members  for 
the  night  of  a  Republican  Club  that  is  not  afraid  to  de- 
clare its  doctrines.  (Applause.)  That  you  are  here  be- 
cause the  Republican  party  still  lives  (applause),  and 
renews  its  expressions  of  belief  in  conservatism  in  gov- 
ernment in  a  representative  government.  We  will  renew 
our  adherence  to  the  doctrines  of  our  fathers  and  the 
principles  of  our  party. 

I  apologize  for  having  talked  so  much.     It  is  now  my 

[12] 


Address  of  Hon.  J.  Van  Vechten  Olcott 

duty  to  act  as  Toastmaster.  The  gentleman  who  will 
speak  upon  Lincoln  is  known  to  many  of  you,  known  by 
name  and  reputation  to  all  of  you,  a  gentleman  who  has 
been  Governor  of  the  great  State  of  New  Jersey.  A  gen- 
tleman who  last  year  should  have  been  elected.  I  intro- 
duce to  you  now  with  the  greatest  pleasure,  the  Honor- 
able Edward  C.  Stokes,  formerly  Governor  of  the  State 
of  New  Jersey.    He  will  speak  to  us  of  Abraham  Lincoln. 


[13] 


ADDRESS  OF 

Hon.  EDWARD  C.  STOKES 


Mr.  Stokes :  Mr.  Toastmaster,  ladies  and  gentlemen : 
Rising  as  I  do  on  this  occasion  with  a  timidity  and  mod- 
esty that  always  characterizes  a  Jersey  man  (laughter), 
your  cordial  welcome  is  all  the  more  appreciated.  I  real- 
ize the  hazard  of  one  who  lives  in  the  solitude  of  my  state 
(laughter)  attempting  to  ask  for  the  metropolitan  ear 
and  to  challenge  the  metropolitan  taste.  As  I  survey 
these  galleries  with  my  bachelor  eyes  (laughter)  my  mis- 
fortune, not  my  fault  (laughter  and  applause),  I  am 
compelled  to  confess  that  New  York  republicanism  is 
somewhat  in  advance  of  New  Jersey  methods  in  proselyt- 
ing for  the  future.  (Laughter.)  I  did  not  know,  until 
I  looked  over  the  scene  to-night,  that  there  were  so 
many  Republicans  in  this  section.  Had  I  had  that  infor- 
mation last  fall,  you  would  have  heard  a  Macedonian  cry 
from  New  Jersey  (laughter)  to  come  over  and  help  us, 
for,  my  friends,  despite  the  prayers  of  your  Chaplain, 
Dr.  Carter,  and  the  eloquence  of  Senator  Borah,  there 
was  a  deficit  over  there  when  the  votes  were  counted  last 
fall  (laughter  and  applause),  but  perhaps  that  is  a  selfish 
view  to  take  of  the  situation,  for  as  I  understand  it,  you, 
on  that  occasion,  were  engaged  in  the  more  patriotic  and 
laudable  work  of  fusing  with  your  opponents,  in  order  to 
enable  them  to  clean  house.     (Applause.) 

I  approach  this  subject  with  no  little  misgiving.  I 
have  been  most  royally  entertained  here  to-night.  I 
have  been  introduced  to  eight  of  my  predecessors  who 
were  assigned  the  same  toast  that  has  been  assigned  to 
me,  and  at  their  presentation  I  was  greeted  with  the 

[151 


The  Republican  Club 

remark  that  "this  gentleman  delivered  the  finest  speech 
ever  heard  in  this  hall  on  that  subject"  (laughter),  and 
then  I  wished  that  I  had  stayed  home. 

I  congratulate  you,  Mr.  Toastmaster  and  members  of 
this  club,  upon  being,  as  I  understand  it,  the  first  organi- 
zation to  annually  preserve  in  fitting  ceremony  the  mem- 
ory of  the  greatest  of  Americans  and  a  Republican  who, 
even  our  so-called  Progressive  friends  cannot  criticise. 
( Applause. )  I  say  "so-called  Progressive."  I  do  not  admit 
that  that  term  belongs  exclusively  to  them,  because  the 
Republican  party  has  been  the  progressive  party  of  this 
nation  since  the  days  of  John  C.  Fremont.  (Applause.) 
Ages  have  their  different  customs.  This  world  is  what 
it  is  to-day  because  of  those  who  have  gone  before,  and 
this  man  came  into  the  world  under  conditions  different 
from  those  of  to-day.  There  was  not  an  electric  light,  or 
a  telegraph,  or  a  telephone,  or  railroad.  He  was  born 
out  in  the  wilds  of  the  Kentucky  woods,  in  a  cabin  with- 
out a  window  or  a  door  or  a  floor.  He  was  without  a 
cradle.  He  had  no  godfather  but  poverty,  and  no  inheri- 
tance but  hardship.  Though  men  knew  it  not,  that  lowly 
born  babe  was  to  be  the  Moses  of  the  new  world  and  they 
called  him  Abraham  Lincoln.  (Applause.)  He  was 
country  bred,  as  many  great  Americans  were.  He  was  a 
child  of  the  woods.  He  drank  in  their  sweetness  and 
their  fragrance,  their  patience  and  their  purity,  their 
silence  and  their  melancholy,  and  from  them  he  gathered 
courage  and  endurance  and  self-reliance.  He  walked  the 
pathway  of  trial  from  boyhood  to  manhood.  He  lost 
mother  and  sister  in  his  early  years.  We  pass  laws 
to-day  forbidding  boys  and  girls  from  working  until  16 
or  1 8  years  of  age,  until  we  are  growing  up  a  race  of  hot- 
house darlings,  without  the  habits  of  industry.  (Ap- 
plause.) This  man  worked  on  a  boat  at  the  age  of  eight. 
He  lived  for  a  year  in  a  three-faced  cottage,  one  side 
exposed  to  the  weather  and  the  storm.     He  knew  the 

[161 


Address  of  Hon.  Edward  C.  Stokes 

hardships  of  the  pioneer's  winter.  He  was  glad  at  times 
to  earn  ten  dollars  a  month,  and  he  never  complained  of 
the  high  cost  of  living.  (Laughter.)  He  never  had  a 
year's  schooling  in  all  his  life,  and  in  his  day  school  con- 
sisted of  the  rudest  cabin,  with  teachers  who  boarded 
out.  One  of  the  early  educators  of  that  day  said  he 
boarded  in  a  house  consisting  of  a  single  room,  15  feet 
square,  inhabited  by  a  man  and  his  wife,  ten  children, 
three  dogs  and  two  cats.  (Laughter.)  Aside  from  this, 
his  schooling  consisted  of  his  moments  of  respite  from 
work  and  his  hours  by  the  light  of  that  famous  pine  knot 
by  night,  with  a  shingle  for  a  blackboard,  a  jack  knife 
for  an  eraser  and  a  piece  of  charcoal  for  a  pencil,  and 
yet  this  man,  without  any  early  educational  advantages, 
became  the  master  of  the  English  tongue.  Emerson  him- 
self, a  child  of  culture,  ranks  him  with  Aesop  and  the 
great  French  literateur,  Montalembert,  commends  his 
style  as  a  model  for  princes  to  copy,  and  the  common 
people  rank  him  easily  first  by  adopting  many  of  his 
phrases  into  the  current  speech  of  mankind.  Upon  a 
wall  of  Brosenose  College  at  Oxford,  England,  there 
hangs  a  letter  which  he  penned  to  a  bereaved  mother, 
who  had  given  five  of  her  sons  to  the  service  of  the  Re- 
public, as  a  specimen  of  the  finest  English  ever  written. 
There  it  hangs  in  the  place  of  honor,  above  the  trained 
scholarship  of  the  ages.  Why,  Oxford  is  six  centuries 
old.  It  has  been  the  centre  of  literary  movement.  From 
it  have  gone  forth  generations  of  learned  men,  philoso- 
phers and  poets  and  theologians  and  historians ;  William 
Pitt,  the  friend  of  America;  Fox,  the  great  English 
writer;  Johnson,  the  lexicographer;  Burke,  the  prose 
poet;  and  yet  this  old  university,  with  its  six  centuries 
of  piled  up  learning,  stretches  its  hand  across  the  Atlantic 
and  places  the  laurel  crown  upon  the  brow  of  this  un- 
educated child  of  the  west  as  a  master  of  the  finest  En- 
glish ever  penned.     (Applause.)     Upon  an  old  eastern 

[17] 


The  Republican  Club 

wall  is  this  picture:  A  king  is  making  of  his  crown  a 
chain,  and  by  his  side  a  slave  is  making  of  his  chain  a 
crown.  Underneath  is  this  inscription:  "Our  lives  are 
what  we  make  them,  no  matter  of  what  they  are  made." 
So  Abraham  Lincoln  illustrates  the  possibility  of  Amer- 
ican opportunity  and  shows  what  can  be  accomplished  by 
every  boy  of  honest  poverty  and  ambition,  and  he  stands 
as  a  splendid  refutation  of  the  cry  of  the  Socialist  that 
things  are  unevenly  divided,  because  it  was  the  hardship 
and  poverty  and  discipline  which  were  the  advantages 
that  made  him  finally  the  great  chieftain  of  the  land. 

Lincoln's  life,  with  its  meagre  schooling,  is  none  the 
less  a  plea  for  education.  He  strove  hard  to  overcome 
the  disadvantages  of  early  youth.  He  walked  forty-four 
miles  to  get  a  copy  of  Blackstone,  and  he  read  one  hun- 
dred pages  of  it  as  he  walked  back.  He  was  a  man  of 
few  books.  You  know  the  list:  Pilgrim's  Progress, 
Robinson  Crusoe,  Aesop's  Fables,  History  of  the  United 
States,  Life  of  Washington,  the  Bible,  and  later  Shakes- 
peare. These  constituted  his  accessible  library,  but  he 
knew  those  books  thoroughly  and,  knowing  a  few  books 
thoroughly,  he  was  better  equipped  than  his  competitors 
who  knew  many  books  superficially.  (Applause.)  Lin- 
coln illustrates  the  power  of  concentration  which  enables 
a  man  to  hit  the  bull's-eye  and  which  comes  from  a  thor- 
ough mastery  of  the  subject,  and  he  stands  in  marked 
contrast  to  some  of  that  superficial  education  to-day, 
which  spreads  itself  over  many  fields  and  covers  topics 
too  numerous  for  the  grasp  of  thought  and  leaves  the 
student  with  a  bird's  eye  of  everything  and  an  accurate 
view  of  nothing.     (Applause.) 

The  superintendent  of  compulsory  education  at  Chi- 
cago has  in  his  possession  a  thousand  volumes,  taken 
from  juvenile  offenders,  which  tell  an  appalling  story  of 
the  kind  of  literature  upon  which  these  unfortunates  feed 
and  the  sources  whence  they  derive  their  first  knowledge 

[  181 


Address  of  Hon.  Edward  C.  Stokes 

of  wrongdoing  and  crime.  One  of  the  greatest  evils  of 
this  land  is  the  habit  of  light  and  superficial  reading. 
Most  of  us  to-day  simply  read  the  headlines  and  draw 
our  conclusions,  without  ever  reading  the  news  articles. 
As  a  rule,  these  are  inaccurate  enough.  Loose  and  super- 
ficial reading  degenerates  the  mind,  unfits  it  for  close 
reasoning  and  leads  it  to  hasty  conclusions.  I  do  not 
know  whether  I  am  a  reformer  or  not.  My  friends  think 
I  am.  My  opponents  say  the  contrary,  but  if  I  had  the 
power  to  be  an  efficient  reformer,  I  would  strike  out  from 
the  newspapers  and  magazines  and  the  publications  of 
this  land,  all  reference  to  crime  and  wrongdoing,  and 
bigamy  and  divorce  and  other  social  ills.     (Applause.) 

The  strongest  characteristic  of  the  human  mind  is 
imitation.  It  is  so  much  easier  to  copy  than  to  be  original. 
If  you  will  put  before  the  youth  of  this  land  a  good  pic- 
ture, the  reaction  will  be  good.  If  you  put  before  the 
youth  an  evil  picture,  the  reaction  will  be  evil,  and,  my 
friends,  the  evils  of  this  land  are  advertised  out  of  all 
proportion  to  their  frequence.  (Applause.)  Why,  if 
some  man  or  woman  goes  wrong,  and  I  speak  with  im- 
partiality on  this  subject  as  a  bachelor  (laughter),  their 
pictures  occupy  the  front  page  of  the  newspaper,  but  you 
never  hear  a  word  about  the  thousands  and  thousands 
and  thousands,  aye,  millions  of  men  and  women,  God- 
fearing, who  live  happy  married  lives  in  their  American 
homes.  (Applause.)  The  business  men  of  this  country 
are  honest,  the  vast  majority,  yet,  my  friends,  because 
now  and  then  one  goes  wrong,  we  have  been  passing  laws 
and  we  are  continuing  to  pass  laws  that  treat  the  busi- 
ness men  as  though  they  were  not  safe  to  be  trusted  with 
the  aflairs  of  this  nation.     (Applause.) 

You  know,  I  sometimes  wish — I  am  not  in  office  now, 
I  am  just  a  has-been — I  sometimes  wish  that  the  Ameri- 
can business  man  could  be  treated  with  the  same  consid- 
eration which  we  show  to  the  Mexicans.     (Applause.) 

I  19] 


The  Republican  Club 

That  is,  I  mean  I  wish  the  American  business  man  could 
be  left  alone  to  settle  his  own  affairs,  just  as  we  are 
letting  the  Mexicans  alone  to  settle  their  affairs.  (Pro- 
longer  laughter  and  applause.)  Well,  that  is  just  thrown 
in  on  the  side,  with  apologies  to  Senator  Borah.  I  sup- 
pose you  have  read  Hawthorne's  story  of  the  Great  Stone 
Face.  It  illustrates  the  influence  of  an  ideal  upon  the 
life  of  a  boy.  Every  morning  as  that  boy  goes  out  from 
his  little  cottage  he  sees  this  great  stone  image,  that 
typifies  to  him  all  that  is  great  and  good  in  human  char- 
acter, and  seeing  it  often,  he  grows  to  like  it,  and  growing 
to  like  it  he  becomes  like  it.  Such  is  always  the  influence 
of  companionship  with  the  great  and  the  good.  Abraham 
Lincoln's  mind  was  never  tainted  with  excursions  into 
the  light  and  the  forbidden.  He  was  not  one  of  those 
miserable  philosophers  who  claim  that  in  order  to  avoid 
evil  you  must  know  something  about  it.  The  books  he 
read  were  moral,  intellectual,  uplifting,  and  upon  these 
as  a  foundation  was  reared  a  character  fit  for  a  martyr's 
crown.     ( Applause. ) 

It  is  a  little  difficult  to  tell  when  the  American  type  of 
man  first  appeared  in  this  country.  You  know  we  are  a 
cosmopolitan  people.  We  are  composed  of  all  races.  We 
are  French  and  Italian,  and  German  and  English,  and 
Russian  and  Hungarian,  and  Irish  officially.  (Laugh- 
ter.) The  men  who  signed  the  Declaration  and  who 
wrote  the  Constitution,  and  the  officers  who  led  the 
armies  of  the  Revolution  were,  for  the  most  part,  English 
gentlemen.  Washington  was  an  English  country  squire. 
Hamilton  was  noted  for  his  aristocratic  dignity  and 
bearing,  and  even  old  Ben  Franklin,  that  old  commoner, 
who  lived  in  that  slow  city  of  Philadelphia  in  his  woolen 
hose,  was  the  idol  of  the  fine  ladies  and  great  nobles  of 
the  courts,  as  though  he  had  been  born  a  marquis.  Brave 
men  as  they  were,  our  forefathers  were  men  of  powdered 
wigs  and  ruffled  shirts — they  are  coming  back  in  style 

[20] 


Address  of  Hon.  Edward  C.  Stokes 

(laughter) — and  of  knee  breeches  and  shoe  buckles. 
They  would  have  graced  the  halls  of  St.  James  or  Ver- 
sailles. They  never  knew  the  democracy  of  this  land, 
as  we  understand  it.  Indeed,  that  democracy  had  not 
yet  appeared.  Events  were  rapidly  culminating  in  a 
typical  Americanism.  The  Revolution  had  died  out.  The 
problems  of  that  war  had  been  solved,  and  the  principles 
of  American  life  were  coming  to  the  test.  As  Abraham 
Lincoln  put  it,  there  were  always  two  principles  that  had 
been  in  conflict  and  always  will  be.  One  is  the  divine 
right  of  kings  and  the  other  the  common  right  of  human- 
ity, and  it  is  the  same  principles,  no  matter  what  form  it 
takes.  It  is  the  principle  which  says  you  labor  and  toil 
and  earn  bread  and  I  will  eat  it.  Puritan  and  Cavalier 
founded  here  a  system  that  opened  a  new  land  for  the 
freedom  of  human  conscience.  When  England  tried  to 
subdue  them,  they  conquered,  and  the  republic  was  born, 
but  they  left  shackles  upon  the  limbs  of  men.  Our  fore- 
fathers never  intended  that  slavery  should  be  permanent. 
Lincoln  conclusively  proved  that  in  his  famous  Cooper 
Union  speech.  Franklin  said  all  the  prayers  sent  to 
Heaven  by  the  Virginians  were  mere  blasphemy  while 
slavery  lived.  Jay  said  that  all  prayers  sent  to  Heaven  in 
the  name  of  liberty  were  in  vain,  so  long  as  slavery  con- 
tinued. Jefferson  drew  the  line  where  the  black  wave  of 
slavery  should  be  stayed.  Mason  mourned  the  penalty 
which  his  descendants  must  pay  for  the  sins  of  their 
father,  but  slavery  grew  and  multiplied  continuously,  and 
all  the  compromises  of  Clay  and  Webster — as  compro- 
mises always  do — only  served  to  intensify  the  contro- 
versy. The  hour  of  culmination  was  near  at  hand.  The 
repeal  of  the  Missouri  compromise,  the  passage  of  the 
fugitive  slave  law,  the  Kansas-Nebraska  struggle,  the 
Lincoln-Douglas  debate,  and  John  Brown's  raids  fol- 
lowed each  other  in  rapid  succession.  They  were  the 
pre-natal  struggles  of  true  Americanism.    Abraham  Lin- 

[21] 


The  Republican  Club 

coin's  training  had  been  all  American.  He  said  in  Inde- 
pendence Hall,  Philadelphia,  "I  never  had  a  sentiment 
political  that  did  not  spring  from  the  Declaration  that 
guarantees  freedom,  not  only  to  this  land,  but  to  all  man- 
kind, and  if  this  country  cannot  be  saved  without  surren- 
dering that  principle,  I  would  rather  be  assassinated  on 
the  spot  than  sacrifice  it."  In  1858  came  the  Lincoln- 
Douglas  debates.  Douglas  was  one  of  the  leading  men 
of  the  country;  the  expected  candidate  of  his  party  for 
President,  as  he  afterward  was,  and  Lincoln's  selection 
to  cope  with  this  little  giant  of  the  West  marked  him  as  a 
rising  man.  When  those  debates  were  finished,  Lin- 
coln's fame  was  national,  and  he  was  everywhere  her- 
alded as  the  champion  of  the  new  Americanism.  In  reply 
to  Judge  Douglas'  charge  that  he  was  advocating  social 
equality  between  white  man  and  black  man,  he  said :  "I 
know  of  no  reason  why  the  black  man  is  not  entitled  to 
all  of  the  rights  in  the  Declaration :  life,  liberty  and  pur- 
suit of  happiness."  He  may  not  be  Judge  Douglas'  equal 
in  many  respects,  perhaps  not  in  mental  and  moral  en- 
dowment, but  in  the  right  to  eat  the  bread  which  his  own 
hand  earns,  without  asking  anyone's  leave,  he  is  my 
equal,  Judge  Douglas'  equal  and  the  equal  of  any  living 
man.  "When,"  said  Lincoln,  "a  man  governs  himself, 
that  is  self-government,  but  when  he  governs  another 
man  without  that  man's  consent,  that  is  despotism." 
Trite  remark,  you  say.  Ah,  yes ;  but  it  required  courage 
to  say  it  in  those  days,  because  those  were  the  days  in 
which  Garrison  was  dragged  through  the  streets  of  cul- 
tured Boston,  with  a  rope  around  his  body,  by  an  angry 
mob,  because  of  his  abolition  sentiments.  Those  were 
the  days  when,  in  Lincoln's  own  State,  Lovejoy  was 
killed  while  defending  his  printing  press  against  rioters, 
because  he  had  issued  anti-slavery  documents.  Into  the 
throes  of  this  controversy,  into  this  atmosphere,  tense 
and  vibrant  with  the  silence  that  portended  the  coming 

[22] 


Address  of  Hon.  Edward  C.  Stokes 

storm,  Lincoln  threw  that  prophet-like  declaration  which 
brought  this  nation  face  to  face  against  itself :  "A  house 
divided  against  itself  cannot  stand.  I  do  not  believe  that 
this  Union  can  exist  half  slave  and  half  free.  I  do  not 
expect  to  see  the  Union  dissolved.  I  do  not  expect  to  see 
the  house  fall,  but  I  expect  it  will  cease  to  be  divided." 
The  battle  was  on.  This  first  great  American,  as  Lowell 
called  him,  had  raised  a  banner  which  was  finally  to 
triumph  at  Appomattox. 

Lincoln's  whole  heart  was  bound  up  in  the  preserva- 
tion of  the  Union.  That  had  been  the  theme  of  his  early 
speeches  and  the  hope  of  his  administration.  To  him  the 
Union  was  the  paramount  issue,  and  although  many 
well-meaning  anti-slavery  advocates  condemned  him  be- 
cause he  refused  to  make  slavery  the  paramount  issue  of 
the  war,  Lincoln  steadfastly  and  courageously  refused  to 
be  diverted  from  his  purpose.  Lincoln  was  not  a  personal 
President.  He  was  a  constitutional  President,  and  he 
stood  by  the  Constitution,  though  it  protected  slavery, 
with  a  hostile  army  in  front,  and  doubting  and  timid 
friends  in  the  rear.  Lincoln  had  all  kinds  of  advice. 
Most  public  men  do.  It  is  one  of  the  remarkable  things 
about  the  American  people  that  they  will  spend  their  tem- 
pers and  energies  and  their  money,  before  the  Corrupt 
Practice  Act  was  passed,  in  electing  the  only  man  fit  to 
be  elected  to  a  particular  position,  and  as  soon  as  he  is 
elected,  they  commence  to  tell  him  how  to  manage  affairs. 
A  delegation  from  the  Evangelical  Churches  of  Chicago 
visited  Lincoln,  to  urge  him  to  issue  forthwith  the  procla- 
mation of  universal  emancipation.  Lincoln  understood 
public  sentiment  better  than  they,  and  he  knew  the  time 
was  not  yet  ripe  for  that  step,  and  yet  the  delegation  was 
of  such  a  character  he  could  not  deny  it,  although  he 
could  not  accede  to  its  request,  and  his  answer  shows  the 
diplomatic  skill  of  the  man  and  his  ability  to  handle  men 
and  situations.    He  said,  "I  am  approached  with  entirely 

[23  J 


The  Republican  Club 

opposite  views,  by  religious  men,  both  of  whom  claim  to 
represent  the  divine  will.  Either  one  or  the  other  must 
be  mistaken ;  perhaps  in  some  respects  both.  I  trust  you 
will  not  regard  it  irrelevant  if  I  suggest  that  if  God  is 
revealing  His  will  to  others  upon  a  matter  so  intimately 
connected  with  my  duty,  it  is  not  improbable  that  He 
would  say  something  to  me  about  it"  (laughter) ;  and  the 
delegation  withdrew,  silent,  if  not  satisfied. 

He  wrote  to  Horace  Greeley,  who,  with  an  editor's 
right,  was  then  trying  to  run  the  affairs  of  government. 
"My  paramount  object  is  to  save  the  Union  and  not  to 
save  or  destroy  slavery.  If  I  can  save  the  Union  by 
freeing  none  of  the  slaves,  I  will  do  that.  If  I  can  save 
the  Union  by  freeing  all  of  the  slaves,  I  will  do  that.  If 
I  save  the  Union  by  freeing  some  of  the  slaves  and 
leaving  others  alone,  I  will  do  that."  Lincoln  relied  upon 
the  intense  love  for  the  Union.  He  knew  that  the 
speeches  of  Webster  and  Clay,  and  thousands  of  others, 
had  made  the  Union  sacred.  He  knew  that  for  the  Union 
millions  had  knelt  at  the  altars  of  slavery,  and  he  believed 
that  for  the  Union  millions  would  kneel  at  the  altars  of 
liberty.  After  trying  every  expedient  and  failing  in  all, 
he  knew  that  either  slavery  or  the  republic  must  die,  and 
so  upon  the  ist  of  January,  1863,  he  took  his  pen  and 
wrote  the  word  "Liberty"  across  the  banners  of  his 
army.  And  just  as  the  heart  of  Constantine  was  uplifted 
of  old  by  the  sign  of  the  Cross  in  the  sky,  so  from  this 
moment  the  soldiers  of  Lincoln  stepped  with  firmer  and 
holier  tread.  That  one  act  accomplished  more  for  man- 
kind than  ever  was  permitted  mortal  man  to  do.  It 
changed  the  whole  aspect  of  the  war.  It  brought  to  the 
North  the  friendship  of  the  humanitarians  of  the  earth. 
The  old  world  might  want  to  see  the  republic  dissolved, 
but  they  could  not  stand  openly  for  slavery.  It  not  only 
freed  four  million  slaves  and  other  millions  yet  unborn, 
but  it  did  more.    Tt  made  a  soldier  of  the  black  man.  and 

[24] 


Address  of  Hon.  Edward  C.  Stokes 

be  it  said  to  his  credit,  120,000  of  them  shouldered  their 
muskets  and  marched  to  consummate  emancipation  for 
all  mankind. 

Lincoln  never  lost  faith  in  the  people.  He  was  not 
a  demagogic  pretence  to  mould  party  politics.  He  be- 
lieved in  the  people.  He  trusted  them.  He  was  loved  by 
them.  He  drew  his  inspirations  from  them.  He  dwelt  in 
their  hearts  and  their  homes  and  their  sanctuaries,  and 
he  did  what  so  few  public  men  do,  and  what  too  many 
Republicans  are  not  doing  in  these  days.  He  never  failed 
to  answer  his  critics  on  all  possible  occasions.  He  never 
hid  behind  that  cowardly  plea  of  contemptuous  silence. 
He  was  always  talking  to  the  people,  either  by  letters  or 
through  the  press,  telling  them  his  policies,  and  they  in 
turn  trusted  him  as  their  prophet  and  their  shepherd,  and 
when  he  called,  they  came  with  their  all  to  the  altar  of 
sacrifice. 

History  paints  no  picture  like  it.  Sons  of  pious  an- 
cestors, striplings  from  colleges,  students  from  theo- 
logical seminaries,  young  lawyers  in  their  offices,  me- 
chanics from  their  benches,  lumbermen  from  the  forests, 
farmers  from  their  plows,  all  with  one  refrain  in  their 
hearts  and  one  song  on  their  lips :  We're  coming,  Father 
Abraham,  three  hundred  thousand  strong.  (Applause.) 
Other  allies  crowd  that  picture,  just  as  the  children  of 
Israel  gave  to  the  building  of  the  temple ;  so  these  people 
of  the  North  gave  nearly  three  billions  of  dollars  in  popu- 
lar loans.  They  gave  over  fifteen  millions  in  private 
charities.  They  suffered  an  increase  of  seven-fold  in 
their  taxes.  Out  of  every  twenty  able-bodied  men,  they 
offered  up  nine  to  the  sacrifice.  Science  lent  its  aid  to 
build  bridges  and  roads  to  speed  the  progress  of  the  army. 
Surgeons  gave  their  experience  and  skill.  The  most  re- 
fined and  gentlest  women  of  the  land  left  homes  of  com- 
fort and  went  down  to  the  front,  to  nurse  the  wounded 
and  dying.     Congregations  gave  up  their  clergymen. 

[25] 


The  Republican  Club 

until  five  thousand  ministers  marched  with  the  army  to 
keep  unsullied  the  moral  and  religious  character  of  the 
men.  Do  you  wonder  that  Abraham  Lincoln  trusted 
this  responsive  host  and  that  with  his  hand  in  theirs  he 
marched  through  storm,  cloud  and  gloom  until  the  sun- 
light broke  again  upon  the  most  magnificent  exhibition 
of  Christian  democracy  this  world  has  ever  seen. 

His  life  is  a  series  of  dramatic  pictures.  I  see  him  now 
in  1 83 1.  He  is  just  entering  Sangamon  County,  Illinois, 
for  the  first  time.  He  is  coming  down  the  fork  of  a  river 
by  that  name,  in  a  little  canoe,  penniless,  friendless,  beg- 
ging for  the  necessaries  of  life.  I  see  him  thirty  years 
later.  He  is  leaving  the  State  of  Illinois  amidst  the 
glad  acclaim  of  his  fellow  citizens;  the  postmaster  of 
New  Salem,  with  its  little  fifteen  houses,  has  become  the 
head  of  the  nation.  The  captain  of  a  volunteer  back- 
woods military  company  has  become  the  Commander-in- 
Chief  of  the  Army  and  Navy  of  the  United  States.  The 
transition  from  the  simple  citizenship  of  Abe  Lincoln  to 
the  chieftainship  of  this  land  is  marvelous  to  contemplate, 
and  could  be  witnessed  in  no  other  country,  and  he  takes 
the  helm  of  the  ship  of  state  in  the  midst  of  a  tornado. 
Seven  States  had  seceded  before  he  takes  the  oath  of 
office.  Four  more  follow.  The  army  is  scattered  in  hos- 
tile States,  its  officers  resigning  and  joining  the  service 
of  the  Confederates.  The  navy  scattered  to  the  ends  of 
the  earth.  Members  of  Congress  talking  treason  in  the 
streets  of  Washington,  and  resigning;  the  Supreme 
Court  unfriendly  to  the  Union ;  Europe  hostile ;  the  treas- 
ury bankrupt.  Tremendous  problems  for  this  untried 
man,  yet  he  faces  it  just  as  he  faced  the  hardships  of  his 
boyhood  days,  and  in  the  storm  and  stress  I  see  him  smile 
and  I  hear  him  say,  "Let  us  believe  that  through  the 
clouds  the  sun  still  shines."     (Applause.) 

I  see  him  now  as  a  man  of  war.  He  arms  two  millions 
of  men.    He  gathers  a  half  a  million  horses.    He  drives 

[261 


Address  of  Hon.  Edward  C.  Stokes 

his  artillery  twelve  hundred  miles  in  a  single  week.  He 
fights  over  six  hundred  battles.  He  spends  three  billions 
of  dollars.  He  suspends  the  act  of  habeas  corpus.  He 
hold  in  the  hollow  of  his  hand  the  power  of  life  and 
prison  and  death.  A  single  word  from  this  man  a  mil- 
lion men  spring  to  their  arms,  regiment  on  regiment,  bri- 
gade upon  brigade,  corps  on  corps;  another  word  and 
they  march  through  forests,  across  streams,  over  fields ; 
cannon  may  rend  them,  half  their  number  may  fall,  and 
at  another  word  from  this  man  half  a  million  more  spring 
to  take  their  places  in  the  carnival  of  death.  Power  on 
the  one  side,  difficulty  on  the  other;  hostile  armies  in 
front,  timid  and  harping  friends  in  the  rear.  A  weaker 
man  would  have  followed  the  easy  pathway  of  a  despot, 
but  this  giant  of  the  West  never  falters,  and  in  all  of  the 
grandeur  and  the  power  he  wielded  he  remains  the  sim- 
plest, kindest,  gentlest  man,  grieving  with  the  orphan's 
grief  and  shedding  his  tears  upon  the  soldier's  grave. 

No  man  can  thoroughly  understand  the  character  of 
Lincoln  without  a  recognition  of  his  faith  in  God.  He 
believed  implicitly  in  God.  As  he  left  Springfield,  he 
said  to  his  friends  and  neighbors:  "I  go  to  assume  a 
duty  and  responsibility  greater  than  that  assumed  by  any 
President,  save  perhaps  Washington.  He  could  not  have 
succeeded  without  the  aid  of  divine  Providence,  upon 
whom  at  all  times  he  relied.  Upon  that  same  Almighty 
power  I  place  my  reliance.  Pray  for  me  that  I  may  have 
divine  assistance,  without  which  I  cannot  succeed,  but 
with  which  I  cannot  fail."  Whenever  Bishop  Ames  and 
Bishop  Simpson  went  to  Washington,  both  of  them 
clergymen  of  the  Methodist  Church,  they  called  upon  the 
great  emancipator  at  the  White  House,  and  they  never 
were  allowed  to  leave  until  they  were  invited  into  a  pri- 
vate room  for  a  word  of  prayer.  Lincoln  believed  in  the 
efficacy  of  prayer. 

Great  man  as  he  was,  Lincoln  was  a  human  man,  and 

[27] 


The  Republican  Club 

he  was  so  great  that  he  was  easily  approachable.  Only 
small  minds  are  compelled  to  surround  themselves  with 
ceremony  and  meretricious  forms.  Lincoln  was  the  same 
to  the  pleading  mother  as  to  the  imperious  King ;  the  same 
to  the  private  soldier  as  to  the  commanding  General.  He 
did  not  patronize  the  one ;  he  did  not  bend  to  the  other. 
He  was  a  simple,  great,  good  man.  And  he  had  a  heart. 
That  is  what  every  public  man  should  have — a  heart  as 
well  as  a  head.  He  could  not  endure  suffering  in  any 
form.  Why,  he  would  ford  an  icy  stream  to  succor  a 
whining  dog,  and  he  would  stop  in  the  midst  of  his  jour- 
ney to  gather  up  some  fallen  fledgling  and  restore  them 
to  their  nests.  Some  of  these  old  veterans  will  tell  you 
that  in  spite  of  his  great  Secretary  of  War  and  command- 
ing generals,  at  the  instance  of  a  pleading  father,  mother, 
brother  or  son,  he  pardoned  soldier  after  soldier,  because 
he  said,  "The  enemy  are  shooting  enough  of  our  boys 
without  our  shooting  any  more,"  and  when  he  had 
granted  pardon  he  never  could  rest  until  he  was  assured 
that  the  orders  reached  the  place  of  execution  before  the 
execution  occurred. 

In  one  case,  a  wife  of  one  of  Mosby's  men,  who  had 
been  caught  in  our  lines,  tried  and  sentenced  to  be  shot, 
came  to  Lincoln  to  plead  for  her  husband.  Lincoln  heard 
her  plea,  and  he  said,  "Madam,  was  he  a  good  husband 
and  a  good  father,  or  did  he  drink  and  abuse  you  ?"  "Oh, 
no,"  said  the  poor  woman,  "he  wTas  a  good  husband  and 
a  good  father,  and  we  cannot  do  without  him.  The  only 
fault  he  had,  he  was  a  fool  about  politics."  (Laughter.) 
"He  was  born  in  the  South.  I  was  born  in  the  North, 
and  if  you  will  only  pardon  him  and  give  him  to  me,  I 
will  see  that  he  never  fights  against  the  North  again." 
"Well,"  said  Lincoln,  "T  will  pardon  him,  and  I  will 
turn  him  over  to  you  for  safe-keeping,"  and  the  poor 
woman,  overcome  with  joy,  broke  down  into  hysterical 
weeping,  and  then  Lincoln,  to  relieve  the  situation,  looked 

[281 


Address  of  Hon.  Edward  C.  Stokes 

at  her  and  said,  "Why,  my  good  woman,  if  I  had  known 
this  would  have  given  you  so  much  trouble,  I  would  not 
have  pardoned  him."     (Laughter.) 

On  another  occasion,  a  father  was  pleading  for  the 
life  of  his  son,  who  had  been  sentenced  to  be  shot  as  a 
deserter,  and  after  hearing  his  plea,  Lincoln  called  in 
one  of  his  secretaries  and  said,  "Telegraph  General 
Butler  to  suspend  execution  in  this  case  until  further 
orders  from  me."  The  father  looked  at  him  and  said, 
"Mr.  President,  I  cannot  take  that  message  to  that  boy's 
mother.  She  is  distracted  now  and  almost  hysterical  with 
anxiety,  and  she  will  fear  lest  you  change  your  mind  and 
execute  her  boy."  "Well,"  said  the  President,  "you 
know  I  have  to  do  the  best  I  can  with  this  administration, 
and  my  generals  tell  me  that  my  mercy  is  destroying  all 
discipline  as  it  is,  but  you  go  home,  and  you  tell  that  boy's 
mother  that  if  he  lives  until  they  get  further  orders  from 
me,  that  when  he  does  die  people  will  say  that  Old  Me- 
thuselah was  a  babe  compared  with  him."  (Laughter.) 
Lincoln  said,  "I  want  it  said  of  me  that  I  plucked  a  thistle 
and  I  planted  a  flower  wherever  a  flower  would  grow." 
Lincoln's  humor  was  keen  and  logical,  and  not  light  and 
frivolous,  as  is  sometimes  thought.  His  stories  always 
illustrated  a  point.  They  drove  home  an  argument. 
They  made  a  link  in  the  chain  of  logic.  He  was  so  plain 
in  his  method  of  speech  he  could  be  understood  by  all. 
His  humor  was  at  times  like  a  parable.  On  one  occasion, 
when  some  of  our  good  ministerial  friends  went  down 
to  Washington  to  complain  of  General  Grant,  the  only 
man  who  at  that  time  was  winning  victories,  because 
they  said  General  Grant  was  drinking  too  much  whiskey, 
Lincoln's  reply  to  the  delegation  that  if  they  could  only 
tell  him  what  kind  of  whiskey  Grant  drank  he  would 
give  it  to  the  rest  of  his  generals,  was  a  sufficient  answer 
to  the  charge,  whether  true  or  false.  When  our  dear 
old  friend,  Horace  Greeley,  was  complaining,  because 

[29] 


The  Republican  Club 

Lincoln  was  not  treating  the  advances  of  the  South  in 
proper  spirit  and  did  not  send  a  Peace  Commission  to 
treat  with  the  Peace  Commissioners  from  the  Confed- 
erate States,  who  had  taken  refuge  up  in  Canada,  Lin- 
coln saw  the  humor  of  the  situation,  and  he  took  Greeley 
at  his  word,  and  appointed  him  on  that  Commission.  Of 
course,  Greeley  failed.  And  Lincoln's  judgment  was 
again  vindicated.  When  Vallandingham  in  Ohio  was 
tried  for  seditious  utterances  and  sentenced  by  the  court, 
and  was  then  posing  as  what  his  friends  termed  a  martyr 
to  judicial  tyranny,  Lincoln's  humor  again  came  to  the 
relief  of  the  situation.  He  suspended  the  sentence  of 
the  court,  and  he  ordered  that  poor  Vallandingham  be 
conducted  to  his  friends  in  the  South,  where  he  could 
rest  in  peace  and  safety.  The  whole  country  laughed, 
and  the  danger  was  over. 

Lincoln's  magnanimity  and  humor  often  exposed  the 
insincerity  and  hypocrisy  of  his  foes,  and  yet  no  words 
of  ridicule,  no  forms  of  opprobrium,  no  license  of  car- 
toon were  too  great  or  too  bitter  to  be  used  against  this 
gentlest  and  kindest  of  men.  It  is  one  of  the  strange 
characteristics  of  us  American  people,  who  claim  we  love 
fair  play,  that  we  delight  at  times  in  ex  parte  criticisms 
of  our  public  officials,  without  any  knowledge  on  our 
part  of  the  motives  which  actuate  them  or  the  reasons 
for  their  judgment.  "Judge  not,  that  ye  be  not  judged," 
is  too  often  forgotten  in  this  land.  Reference  to  this 
injustice  which  at  times  almost  broke  Lincoln's  heart, 
is  made  only  as  an  observation  in  the  treatment  of  our 
public  men  and  a  reminder  that  Lincoln  lived  long 
enough  to  silence  his  critics  and  his  foes.  London  Punch , 
one  of  his  bitterest  revilers,  wrote  these  four  lines  upon 
the  occasion  of  his  death : 

"Beside  this  corpse  which  has  for  winding  sheets 
The  Stars  and  Stripes  he  lived  to  weave  anew, 
Between  the  mourners  at  his  head  and  feet, 
Sav,  scurrile  Jester,  is  there  room  for  you?" 
[30] 


Address  of  Hon.  Edward  C.  Stokes 

Ah,  yes,  Lincoln's  charity  was  a  mantle  broad  enough 
to  cover  all.  After  all,  time  is  the  test.  And  Lincoln 
has  escaped  oblivion,  and  his  face  and  his  fame  grow 
dearer  and  greater  and  clearer  as  the  years  roll  on,  just 
as  does  Moses  in  Israel  or  Shakespeare  in  literature,  be- 
cause he  was  a  great,  good  man. 

When  the  curtain  fell  upon  that  final  scene  at  Appa- 
mattox,  Lincoln  was  the  supreme  victor  of  the  hour.  He 
had  freed  the  slave.  He  had  saved  the  Union.  He  had 
vindicated  his  wisdom  and  judgment  before  the  world, 
and  at  that  moment  he  went  down  to  Richmond  and  he 
walked  up  the  landing  towards  the  Capitol  Square,  and 
as  he  entered  that  square  someone  touched  him  on  the 
arm  and  said,  "Look,  Mr.  Lincoln,  there  is  your  flag 
waving  over  the  Capitol."  Lincoln  looked  up  and  he 
saw  the  Stars  and  Stripes  floating  over  the  house  from 
which  Jefferson  Davis  had  just  fled,  and  a  look  of  ineffa- 
ble gratitude  lit  up  his  countenance  as  he  realized  that 
the  consummation  of  his  lifetime  had  come,  and  that 
those  colors  waved  over  the  doom  of  the  Confederacy  and 
the  triumph  of  the  Union  cause. 

The  circumstances  of  his  death  need  no  review. 
Amidst  the  general  rejoicing  of  his  countrymen,  this 
hero  of  peace  and  war  fell  upon  his  completed  work, 
April  14th,  1865;  his  eyelids  closed,  and  his  head  fell 
upon  his  breast  in  peace. 

The  age  of  miracles  we  are  wont  to  say  is  gone,  but 
the  age  of  an  ever-living  personal  God,  who  guards  our 
footsteps  as  He  watches  the  spirit's  flight,  is  still  our 
heritage.  Lincoln's  fame  and  greatness  and  character 
cannot  be  measured  by  human  standards.  He  came  and 
went  as  a  messenger,  and  shall  we  not  believe  that  that 
lowly  babe,  born  out  in  the  wilds  of  the  Kentucky  woods, 
was  sent  to  save  the  Union  and  to  free  the  slaves,  and 
that  when  his  work  was  done  God  called  him  back  to  his 
home  in  the  skies? 

[31] 


The  Republican  Club 

All  about  us  are  the  things  he  left.  There's  the  black 
man  and  his  freedom.  There's  the  schoolboy  with  his 
declamation.  There's  the  fireside  circle  with  his  story 
and  picture.  There's  his  greeting  in  the  poet's  lines,  and 
his  homely  face  in  the  sculptor's  art.  There's  the  justice 
of  American  institutions  he  regenerated  and  the  equality 
of  privilege  and  opportunity  he  bequeathed.  There's 
his  glory,  shining  in  that  unsullied  flag  that  carried 
liberty  to  Cuba  and  a  new  message  of  hope  to  the  brown- 
skinned  race  at  Manila,  and  there  above  the  rancor  of 
faction  and  the  tumult  of  debate  is  heard  the  sweet  obli- 
gate of  his  malice  toward  none  and  charity  towards  all. 
The  master  spirit  of  the  republic,  he  touches  the  cords 
of  memory  and  wakes  the  better  angels  of  our  nature, 
the  nation's  vicarious  sacrifice,  his  birth  a  sacrament,  his 
life  a  prayer,  his  death  a  benediction.  (Prolonged 
applause.) 

The  Toastmaster :  And  when  next  Governor  Stokes 
comes  as  our  guest,  there  will  not  be  eight,  or  any,  who 
will  say  that  they  had  made  the  best  speech  on  Lincoln. 
Just  pardon  me  one  moment,  and  let  me  read  a  few  lines 
that  seem  to  me  to  fittingly  follow  this  great  speech. 

"And  so  they  buried  Lincoln !  Strange,  in  vain.  Has 
any  creature  thought  of  Lincoln  laid  in  any  vault  'neath 
any  coffined  lot,  in  all  the  years  since  that  wild  spring  of 
pain  ?  'Tis  false.  He  never  in  the  grave  hath  lain.  You 
could  not  bury  him,  although  you  slid  upon  his  clay  the 
Cheops  pyramid  or  heaped  it  with  the  Rocky  Mountain 
chain." 

No  meeting  in  memory  of  Lincoln  is  entirely  complete 
without  hearing  the  immortal  Gettysburg  address,  and 
therefore  I  will  ask  Mr.  Alexander  V.  Campbell,  one  of 
the  old-time  members  of  the  club,  to  read  it. 

( Gettysburg  address  read  by  Mr.  Campbell. ) 

The  Toastmaster:     Gentlemen  and  ladies,   T  hardly 

[32] 


Address  of  Hon.  Edward  C.  Stokes 

know  how  to  introduce  the  next  speaker.  He  has  really 
had  so  many  titles  that  almost  anything  would  go.  He 
was  a  soldier  in  the  Civil  War;  he  was  a  legislator  in 
West  Virginia;  he  was  Governor  of  the  State.  After 
that  he  was  a  Federal  Judge.  When  Mr.  Hayes  was 
President,  he  was  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy.  He  did 
not  particularly  want  to  leave  the  bench.  The  people  of 
West  Virginia  and  all  that  Federal  circuit  wanted  to  re- 
tain him  forever,  but  when  they  got  into  something  of  a 
difficulty  down  in  the  Legislature  of  the  State  of  Vir- 
ginia and  something  like  74  ballots  for  Senator  had  been 
had,  someone  with  a  prescience  as  to  events  nominated 
Nathan  Goff  for  Senator.  He  was  elected  by  the  Legis- 
lature, and  he  stepped  from  the  judicial  branch  of  the 
government  to  the  legislative,  and  became  Senator  of 
the  United  States.  He  personally  knew  Abraham  Lin- 
coln. I  cannot  give  him  all  his  titles.  Therefore,  I  will 
introduce  him  as  Lincoln's  friend,  Nathan  Goff. 


[33J 


ADDRESS  OF 

Hon.  NATHAN  GOFF 


Mr.  Goff:  Mr.  Toastmaster,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen: 
It  is  sometimes  embarrassing  to  speak  after  such  an  in- 
troduction as  that.  It  makes  one  think  that  likely  too 
much  may  be  expected  of  him,  and  if  that  be  true  to- 
night, what  a  fearful  ordeal  I  have  to  go  through,  for 
after  the  wonderful,  brilliant,  eloquent  and  historical 
review  of  the  history  of  this  land  and  Abraham  Lincoln, 
what  is  there  left  for  mortal  to-night  to  say  ?  A  gentle- 
man talking  with  me  this  evening  as  I  came  into  the  hall 
stated,  "Senator,  what  are  you  to  talk  of  to-night?  Will 
you  give  me  a  copy  of  your  address,  that  I  may  hand  it  to 
the  press?"  and  I  said,  "I  beg  your  pardon,  but  I  cannot. 
I  never  wrote  a  speech  in  my  life."  (Applause.)  Then 
he  said,  "Will  you  tell  me  what  you  are  going  to  talk 
of?"  I  said,  "I  will  tell  you  what  a  friend  said  to  me." 
I  wonder  if  that  friend  did  not  know  what  the  Governor 
from  the  shores  of  Jersey  was  going  to  say.  I  wonder 
if  he  did  not  know  there  was  nothing  left  to  say.  There 
is  a  grand  old  Biblical  story  of  the  gleaners,  those  that 
passed  through  the  harvest  field,  gathered  the  few  stray 
grain  of  hay,  or  wheat,  or  rye  that  might  be  left,  and  it 
is  said  there  that  a  few  in  sympathy  dropped  a  few 
sheathes  for  the  gleaners.  Can  anybody  tell  where  the 
few  were  dropped  to-night?  (Laughter.)  Now,  I  am 
just  going  to  talk  to  you  a  few  moments  this  evening,  just 
around  the  outskirts,  as  it  were,  and  I  beg  the  pardon  of 
my  brother,  the  Senator  from  Idaho,  when,  if  I  take 
much  more  of  the  field,  I  pray  that  God  may  have  mercy 
on  his  oratorical  soul.  Now,  your  distinguished  and 
eloquent  Toastmaster  has  said  that  I  knew  Abraham 
Lincoln,  and  probably  while  we  are  discussing  that  won- 

[35] 


The  Republican  Club 

derful  character  it  would  be  just  as  well  that  I  com- 
menced in  saying  what  he  meant  by  that  illusion.  It  so 
happened  that  the  fates  decreed  that  I  should  be  born 
south  of  Mason  and  Dixon's  line  in  Virginia,  and  para- 
doxial  as  it  may  appear,  the  loyalty  to  the  flag  that  was 
always  mine  made  me  a  traitor  to  Virginia.  (Applause. ) 
In  my  boyhood  days,  I  loved  the  banner  of  my  fathers. 
My  college  friends,  the  boys  of  my  youth,  went  the  other 
way.  I  loved  the  old  flag.  I  loved  the  Union  of  the 
States.  I  enlisted  under  the  banner  of  the  blue  (ap- 
plause), and  through  the  wars  of  the  republic,  from  the 
first  battle  fought,  when  blood  was  shed  in  the  State  of 
Virginia,  down  to  the  surrender  of  Appomattox,  as  God 
gave  me  to  see  my  duty  as  a  soldier  under  that  flag,  I 
did  it.  (Applause.)  In  the  vicissitudes  of  war  there,  as 
it  came  to  many,  I  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  enemy.  I 
yielded,  as  I  was  compelled  to  do  with  the  overwhelming 
of  that  enemy,  and  I  awoke,  finding  myself  in  the  prison 
of  Libby.  Those  who  fought  and  who  honestly  likely 
believed  that  I  was  a  traitor  to  my  State  and  that  my 
father  was,  also  thought,  having  me  in  their  power,  they 
would  show  what  a  traitor  to  Virginia  meant.  He  was 
to  be  tried  for  treason,  but  it  so  happened  that  at  that 
time  that  in  the  Federal  power  there  came  a  Confederate 
major,  I  holdine  the  rank  of  a  major  in  the  Union  Army. 
That  man  had  been  tried  as  a  spy  before  I  was  captured. 
I  knew  the  incidents  attending  his  trial,  because  he  was 
tried  and  convicted  before  I  was  so  captured.  I  know 
that  under  the  laws  of  war  he  was  justly  convicted.  I 
knew  from  my  readings  as  a  schoolboy  of  the  agony  it 
was  with  which  he,  who  was  first  in  war,  first  in  peace 
and  first  in  the  hearts  of  his  countrymen,  signed  the  death 
warrant  of  Andre.  It  was  his  imperative  duty  so  to  do. 
The  powers  that  reigned  in  the  Confederacy  selected 
your  speaker  as  a  hostage  for  that  man,  and  said.  "As 
you  do  unto  Almsley,  so  we  will  do  unto  Goff,"  and  sent 

[36] 


Address  of  Hon.  Nathan  Goff 

that  word  to  the  administration  at  Washington.  I  ex- 
pected but  little  relief.  Weary  weeks  and  months  went 
by  with  that  shadow  over  me.  Weary  weeks  and  months 
was  I  told  it  is  but  a  short  time  till  the  hangman's  noose 
shall  be  yours,  and  one  morning  I  was  enlivened  by  a 
flag  of  truce  note  brought  to  me  generously  by  my 
keepers.  I  read  it  eagerly.  It  said,  "Young  man,  be 
cheerful ;  you  are  not  forgotten.  The  men  in  charge  at 
Washington  have  not  forgotten  their  soldiers."  The 
name  signed  to  that  was  the  greatest  name  in  the  history 
of  humanity  or  civilization.  The  name  of  one  who,  in 
enduring  bronze  and  chiseled  marble,  will  live  through  all 
time  and  into  eternity.  A  man  among  men,  a  statesmen 
among  statesmen,  a  martyr  among  martyrs,  a  President 
among  Presidents,  God's  grandest  gift  of  man  to  man, 
Abraham  Lincoln.  (Applause.)  Surely,  I  took  heart; 
surely,  I  was  encouraged.  I  wrote  him  a  note  in  reply, 
doubting  very  much  that  it  would  ever  reach  its  desti- 
nation, but  it  did,  and  the  archives  of  the  War  Depart- 
ment show  it,  and  in  reply  to  that  note — and  pardon  me 
if  I  do  not  say  what  I  wrote — but  in  reply  to  that  note  he 
wrote  again  and  he  said,  "Boys  like  you  are  worth  more 
in  the  Federal  Army  than  all  of  the  Confederate  majors 
we  have  got,  and  you  are  coming  home."  I  use  those 
words,  "you  are  coming  home,"  because  a  few  short 
weeks  afterwards  he  said  that  to  me  again.  I  went  home. 
I  left  the  miserable  cells  of  Libby.  I  left  the  dark  walls 
of  the  penitentiary  at  Salisbury.  I  went  down  the  broad 
bosom  of  the  James  on  a  Confederate  truce  boat,  and  as 
I  rounded  the  bend  in  that  beautiful  river,  and  God's 
sunshine  was  just  breaking  over  the  level  valley,  I  saw 
the  magnificent  steamer,  the  City  of  New  York,  coming 
up,  and  the  beautiful  flag  of  the  country  floating.  It  was 
the  loveliest  sight  that  God  Almighty  ever  let  human 
eyes  gaze  upon.  (Applause.)  I  landed  at  Annapolis, 
and  I  was  a  little  startled  to  receive  a  notice  there,  handed 

[37] 


The  Republican  Club 

me  by  Major  Mulford,  the  Union  Commissioner  of  Ex- 
change, and  it  read,  "You  are  directed  to  report  imme- 
diately to  the  Secretary  of  War  at  Washington."    I  was 
quite  a  boy.    I  was  a  little  scared.    I  did  not  know  exactly 
what  it  meant,  but  as  a  matter  of  course,  being  a  soldier, 
I  obeyed  the  order,  and  I  presented  myself  the  next  day 
to  the  Secretary  of  War,  a  great  secretary,  a  great  man, 
Edwin  M.   Stanton.      (Applause.)      He  said,   "Young 
man,  the  President  directed  me  to  send  that  order.   I  will 
give  you  a  letter  of  introduction  to  him,"  and  he  wrote  it 
on  those  papers  that  so  many  of  us  are  familiar  with, 
with  "War  Department"  at  the  head:     "The  bearer  of 
this  is  the  Major  GofT  you  directed  to  be  exchanged. 
E.  M.  Stanton."     These  little  notes  are  at  my  museum 
to-day.    I  hardly  know  what  else  to  call  it — very  valuable 
to  me,  too;  at  least,  dear  mementoes  of  those  early  days 
of  my  life.    I  took  it  to  the  White  House.    I  entered  that 
old  cabinet  chamber.     It  was  crowded  to  excess,  and  I 
waited  my  turn.    In  those  days,  so  great  was  the  throng 
that  they  formed  in  line  to  pass  the  Chief  Executive.    I 
saw  some  of  the  incidents  that  our  friend  alluded  to 
to-night.      I    saw   the   praying   wife,    the    supplicating 
mother,  the  begging  father,  the  aged,  the  young,  the  boy, 
the  girl,  all  passing  in  review.     I  looked  on  the  face  of 
that  wonderful  man  then  for  the  first  time.     He  had  a 
kind  word  for  all.     It  was  a  wonderful,  indescribable 
face,  so  full  of  human  charity,  of  pity,  of  desiring  to  aid 
all.     I  saw  him  take  by  the  hand  one  by  one.  and  I 
could  tell  when  he  said  an  encouraging  word.    His  own 
face  lighted  and  the  smile  on  the  countenance  of  those 
that  he  spoke  to  indicated  it.     I  saw  when  he  deemed  it 
his  duty  to  hesitate  for  a  moment.     I  felt  for  those  who 
felt  discouraged,  for  I  knew  not  what  might  be  coming 
for  myself,  but  finally  I  reached  him.    The  great  throng 
passed  through,  and  as  I  approached  him,  looking  at  me, 
studying  me,  reading  from  my  uniform  that  T  was  a 

[38] 


Address  of  Hon.  Nathan  Goff 

Major  in  the  Federal  Army,  reading  from  my  appear- 
ance that  I  was  not  very  well — for  six  months  in  a  Con- 
federate prison  does  not  contribute  to  one's  personal 
appearance — and  he  said,  "Major,  you  are  not  very  well, 
are  you?  Can  I  do  anything  for  you?"  and  I  handed 
him  the  card,  and  he  took  it,  looked  at  it,  dropped  it. 
"Not  very  well ;  should  think  not.  Come  with  me,"  and 
almost  with  his  great  arms  around  me  he  took  me  into 
the  library.  He  said,  "Stay  here;  rest  here  until  I  am 
through  with  this  audience;  it  will  not  be  long."  That 
was  my  first  introduction  to  this  man.  I  waited  for  him, 
and  he  came  in  a  short  time.  He  said,  "I  have  some 
questions  to  ask  you.  I  do  not  ask  you  to  answer  them 
this  evening.  Take  them  with  you,  write  your  answers, 
and  give  them  to  me  to-morrow.  Do  not  come  when  the 
rush  and  the  crush  is  here,  and  do  not  come  as  you  come 
to-day.  This  card  in  writing  will  bring  you  into  the 
library,  and  I  will  see  you  there."  I  took  those  questions. 
They  related  to  the  suffering  soldiers  in  Confederate 
prisons.  At  that  time  the  exchange  had  been  suspended 
and  men  had  filled  the  prisons  of  the  South,  both  at  Libby, 
Belle  Isle  and  Andersonville,  and  they  were  dying  by 
the  score,  and  the  great  heart  of  this  man  went  out  to 
them.  I  found  that  he  had  propounded  the  same  ques- 
tions to  a  number  of  others  who  came  back  from  Southern 
prisons,  and  by  their  answers  was  this  great  President 
and  Commander-in-Chief  to  determine  the  course  that 
he  would  take,  as  to  whether  or  not  those  soldiers  were 
to  be  brought  home.  As  God  gave  me  to  see  my  duty,  I 
answered  those  questions,  and  the  next  day,  according 
to  his  directions,  I  was  there  and  presented  them,  and 
there  with  him  was  his  great  Secretary  of  War.  Now, 
then,  he  said,  "Young  man,  read  the  answer  to  your  first 
question,"  and  I  did.  "Now,  the  second,"  and  I  did;  and 
he  turned  to  the  Secretary  and  said,  "I  told  you  so,  Mr. 
Secretary.    Now,  the  third" ;  I  did.    "That  is  in  accord- 

[39] 


The  Republican  Club 

ance  with  their  answers,  Mr.  Secretary.  Now,  another" ; 
and  I  did.  I  should,  in  order  to  understand  a  remark 
that  he  made,  have  stated  a  moment  ago  that  he  said  to 
me,  "What  did  you  do  those  weary,  dreary  months  in 
prison?"  I  said,  "I  had  chosen  the  profession  of  the 
law  before  I  entered  the  army.  I  brought  certain  vol- 
umes and  read  them.  I  brought  Blackstone  and  Chitty 
and  Parsons,  and  I  can  repeat  almost  every  word  they 
have.  I  had  nothing  else  to  do."  Well,  he  went  on  then 
with  his  questions  and  his  conversation  to  the  Secretary. 
He  said,  "Mr.  Stanton,  this  is  terrible."  Mr.  Stanton 
said,  "Yes."  "Mr.  Stanton,  don't  you  think  the  boys  had 
better  come  home?"  "Mr.  President,"  his  reply  was,  "I 
have  discussed  that  matter  with  you  in  substance."  "Mr. 
Secretary,  I  think  the  boys  will  come  home."  "Mr. 
President,  it  is  not  war" ;  and  he  made  a  remark  then  as 
to  the  truth  of  which  I  could  but  testify,  and  as  to  which 
I  was  a  walking,  talking,  living  example.  "Mr.  Presi- 
dent, do  you  realize  that  you  are  sending  twenty-five  or 
thirty  thousand  strong  men  into  the  army  of  the  Con- 
federacy, and  receiving  back  twenty-five  or  thirty  thou- 
sand walking  skeletons?"  But  Abraham  Lincoln,  great 
as  he  has  been  portrayed;  Abraham  Lincoln,  who  has 
been  pictured  so  friendly  here  to-night;  Abraham  Lin- 
coln, from  whom  none  of  us  can  take  his  glory  or  none 
of  us  add  to  his  fame,  said,  "Mr.  Stanton,  the  boys  are 
coming  home"  (applause),  and  then  in  remembrance  of 
what  we  had  talked  of  the  day  before,  when  I  was  resting 
on  the  lounge  and  he  was  talking  with  me,  he  said. 
"Young  man,  you  have  won  your  first  case."  (Ap- 
plause.) Now,  that  was  the  Abraham  Lincoln  that  I 
knew,  and  that  I  have  endeavored  to  portray  to  you  to- 
night, keeping  in  mind  my  last  remark;  what  more  can  I 
say  of  him  ?  Leaving  that  subject  then,  what  else  is  there 
for  me  to  talk  about  ?  My  friend,  Borah,  is  going  to  talk 
of  the  Republican  party.    That  is  a  subject  that  anyone, 

[40] 


Address  of  Hon.  Nathan  Goff 

it  seems  to  me,  especially  in  the  presence  of  such  an 
audience  as  this,  can  talk  about,  but  I  am  not  a  preacher, 
you  see.  Then,  as  my  friend  suggested  to  me,  there  is 
not  anything  left  for  you  to  talk  about,  unless  it  is  the 
tariff.  Well,  anyhow,  I  am  just  going  to  detain  you  a 
few  minutes  to  say  that  I  am  a  protective  tariff  man 
(applause),  and  I  have  been  so  from  my  boyhood.  Born 
in  that  Southern  land  that  I  have  told  you  about,  looking 
at  its  wonderful  topography,  impressed  with  its  mag- 
nificent wealth,  a  student  in  its  colleges,  driving  over  the 
magnificent  mountainway  from  tidewater  Virginia  to 
Transylvania  and  the  Ohio  Valley,  I  could  but  be  im- 
pressed with  that  magnificent  gift  that  God  Almighty 
had  given  to  His  children  of  man,  and  yet  all  was  as  quiet 
as  the  grave.  The  magnificent,  pristine  forest  stood  un- 
touched; the  wonderful  development  of  coal  had  never 
been  mined.  Boy  as  I  was,  I  could  but  wonder  "why  it 
is,"  and  the  question  that  I  solved  was  the  question  that 
you  elucidated  to-night,  the  question  of  slavery.  I  lived 
in  a  land  where  slavery  prevailed  and  all  the  men  around 
me  were  owners  of  slaves.  Now,  until  the  discovery  of 
the  cotton  gins  and  the  information  that  it  gave  to  the 
South,  that  slavery  and  cotton  production  would  make 
them  immensely  wealthy,  there  had  been  no  protective 
tariff.  I  mean  a  high  protective  tariff,  a  protective  tariff 
that  in  fact  protects.  Why  was  this  situation  existing  in 
Virginia  and  through  the  South?  Any  student  of  the 
history  of  this  country  knows  this  fact:  That  early  in 
the  nation,  when  our  fathers  founded  the  republic,  it 
was  as  Madison,  the  expounder  of  the  Constitution,  said 
upon  this  question  of  protection,  "We  are  all  Republicans, 
and  we  are  all  Federalists,"  and  George  Washington, 
when  he  signed  the  first  protective  tariff,  realized  that 
fact,  and  under  it  the  Colonies  or  the  States  then  pros- 
pered as  no  country  had  ever  before  prospered.  Our 
English  rulers  looked  with  envy  upon  the  Colonies  when 

[41] 


The  Republican  Club 

they  attempted  to  be  independent,  so  far  as  manufactures 
was  concerned.  The  English  Parliament  passed  an  Act 
that  it  shall  be  unlawful  for  the  Colonies  to  manufacture 
woolen  goods.  It  shall  be  unlawful  for  the  Colonies  to 
establish  mills  and  factories,  and  then  finally,  when  the 
Colonies  did  establish  the  mills,  the  Parliament  passed 
an  Act.  Now,  think  of  it,  men  of  New  York!  They 
passed  an  Act  that  the  establishment  of  mills  and  fac- 
tories in  the  Colonies  are  hereby  prohibited  and  the 
Colonial  Governors  are  hereby  required  to  do  what  ?  To 
abate  them  within  sixty  days  as  nuisances.  No  wonder 
then  we  were  dependent  upon  the  English  or  foreign 
countries  for  our  manufactured  articles.  Now,  presto, 
change.  Under  this  Act  that  I  have  just  alluded  to,  all 
over  the  land  our  mills  and  our  factories  sprang  up. 
Employment  was  given  to  labor.  We  made  our  own 
manufactured  goods.  We  ceased  to  import.  That  con- 
tinued down  to  the  time  in  substance — there  were  some 
little  restrictions  when  we  had  what  we  might  call  the 
Walker  Tariff  Act.  The  country  had  been  prospering 
before.  All  over  the  land  mills  closed  down.  Over  in 
Pennsylvania,  where  I  spent  some  of  my  boyhood  days 
with  some  college  friends,  the  furnaces  died  out.  There 
was  no  longer  smoke  from  the  stacks.  My  Democratic 
friends  called  the  era  in  our  history  under  the  Walker  Act 
as  a  golden  era.  They  had  plenty  of  money,  they  said. 
Plenty  of  money !  Where  was  it  ?  The  money  was  in  the 
Federal  treasury,  but  it  was  not  in  the  pockets  of  the 
people.  There  were  disasters  throughout  the  land,  from 
one  end  to  the  other.  The  only  citations  thst  I  want  to 
make  to  you  to-night  are  a  few  historical  references,  and 
I  have  deemed  it  wise  to  confine  them  as  far  as  practica- 
ble to  Democratic  efforts.  If  I  quote  a  Republican  effort, 
they  say,  "Why,  oh,  yes,  as  a  matter  of  course;  that  is 
all  right;  we  expected  you  to  do  that."  Now,  I  want  to 
call  your  attention  to  the  reference  to  the  condition  of 

[42  ] 


Address  of  Hon.  Nathan  Goff 

the  country  on  this  question  made  by  President  Jackson. 
Now,  old  Hickory — old  Andy  Jackson — was  a  pretty 
good  President,  after  all.  He  said — now  I  am  quoting 
from  his  message  of  December  4th,  1832,  and  that  I  beg 
you  to  remember  was  a  protective  tariff  era.  These  are 
his  words:  "Our  country  presents  on  every  side  marks 
of  prosperity  and  happiness  unequalled  perhaps  in  any 
other  portion  of  the  world."  A  Democratic  President. 
Now  came  the  tariff  for  revenue  of  1832  to  1842.  Under 
it,  all  of  you  who  are  familiar  with  the  history  of  our 
country,  recall  the  conditions  that  I  have  just  pictured. 
Now  I  read  from  the  message  of  President  Polk  of  De- 
cember 8th,  1846:  "Labor  in  all  its  branches  is  receiving 
an  ample  reward,  while  education,  science  and  wages  are 
rapidly  enlarging  the  means  of  social  happiness.  The 
progress  of  our  country  in  her  career  of  greatness,  not 
only  in  the  vast  expansion  of  our  limits  and  in  the  rapid 
increase  of  our  population,  but  in  its  resources  and  in  its 
wealth  and  in  the  happy  condition  of  our  people,  is  with- 
out an  example  in  the  history  of  nations."  Then  came 
the  revenue  tariff  of  1846.  Now  I  invite  your  attention 
particularly  to  what  is  known  as  the  Walker  Act.  Under 
it,  as  I  have  stated,  our  factories  were  closed.  At  that 
time  the  water  went  by  our  mills,  but  the  wheels  did  not 
turn.  President  Filmore,  in  his  message  of  December 
2nd,  1 85 1,  used  these  words:  "The  value  of  our  exports 
of  breadstuffs  and  provisions,  which  it  was  supposed  the 
incentive  of  a  low  tariff  and  large  importations  from 
abroad  would  have  greatly  augmented,  has  fallen  from 
$68,000,000  in  1847  to  $26,000,000  in  1850.  The  policy 
which  dictated  a  low  rate  of  duties  on  foreign  merchan- 
dise, it  was  thought  by  those  who  established  it,  would 
tend  to  benefit  the  farming  population  of  this  country  by 
increasing  the  demand  and  raising  the  price  of  agricul- 
tural products  in  foreign  markets.  The  foregoing  facts, 
however,  seem  to  show  incontestably  that  no  such  result 

[43] 


The  Republican  Club 

has  followed."  Now,  one  more  quotation  and  I  leave  the 
subject,  and  that  was  from  the  last  Democratic  President 
in  his  message  to  Congress,  December  8th,  1857:  "The 
earth  has  yielded  her  fruits  abundantly,  has  bountifully 
rewarded  the  toil  of  the  husbandmen.  Our  great  staples 
have  commanded  high  prices  until  within  a  brief  period 
our  manufacturing,  mineral  and  mechanical  occupations 
have  largely  partaken  generally  of  the  prosperity.  We 
have  produced  all  the  elements  of  material  wealth  in  rich 
abundance,  and  yet,  notwithstanding  all  these  advan- 
tages, our  country  in  its  monetary  interests  is  at  the 
present  moment  in  a  deplorable  condition ;  in  the  midst  of 
unsurpassed  plenty  in  all  the  productions  and  in  the  ele- 
ments of  national  wealth,  we  find  our  manufactures  sus- 
pended, our  public  enterprises  abandoned  and  thousands 
of  useful  laborers  thrown  out  of  employment  and  reduced 
to  want."  That  condition  is  existing  over  in  Washing- 
ton to-day.  We  have  to-day  an  administration — let  me 
give  you  the  exact  figures,  because  it  is  monstrous.  I 
want  to  show  it  to  you.  It  will  take  but  a  moment  of 
your  time.  We  have  to-day  a  minority  administration, 
the  President  receiving  6,293,120  votes.  William  H. 
Taft  (applause)  received  3,485,082  votes.  Theodore 
Roosevelt  received  4,119,582  votes.  Eugene  V.  Debs 
received  901,839  votes.  Eugene  W.  Chaffin  received 
206,487  votes.  Now,  here  is  the  question.  The  aggre- 
gate vote  against  President  Wilson  was  8,741,680,  while 
President  Wilson's  vote  was  6,293,000.  Now,  there  are 
the  figures  showing  that  President  Wilson  is  a  minority 
President  on  the  votes  of  the  people  by  2,244,856  votes. 
I  say  that  is  monstrous,  and  yet  I  say  it  is  a  tribute  to  our 
republican  form  of  government  (applause)  because  from 
one  end  of  the  land  to  the  other  there  has  been  acquies- 
cence in  that  decision,  and  he  was  constitutionally  elected. 
I  allude  to  it  to-night  to  ask  my  friends  of  this  country  not 
to  do  that  thing  again  (applause)  unless  the  Republican 

[44] 


Address  of  Hon.  Nathan  Goff 

party — and  it  is  the  party  that  all  men  ought  to  love,  be- 
cause it  is  the  party  of  liberty  and  freedom,  the  party 
that  is  not  a  party  of  mere  expediency,  a  party  that  hews 
to  the  chalk  lines,  let  the  chips  fall  where  they  will — 
unless,  I  say,  we  do  get  together  upon  that,  this  thing 
will  be  repeated  in  the  fall  election  and  repeated  in  the 
next  Presidential  election.  Now,  one  word  and  good- 
night. The  flag  that  we  all  love  so,  the  flag  for  which  the 
fathers  of  the  republic  contended,  it  typifies  to-night  all 
that  men  hold  dear  in  civilization.  Wherever  it  floats 
it  is  welcomed  by  the  people  who  understand  existing 
conditions.  It  stands  everywhere  as  typifying  what  the 
great  republic  is  to-night,  the  land  unto  which  the  eyes 
of  the  weary  and  the  down-pressed  of  all  countries  are 
turned.  Do  not  let  us  interfere  with  it.  Let  us  picture  it 
as  it  is  to-night  and  let  us  see  by  our  votes  that  we 
continue  in  the  future  what  has  been  in  the  past.  (Ap- 
plause. ) 

The  Toastmaster :  Ladies  and  gentlemen,  in  introduc- 
ing the  next  speaker  it  is  like  saying  to  an  old-time  per- 
sonal friend,  "Get  up  here  and  make  this  audience  like 
you  as  much  as  the  men  do  who  had  the  honor  of  serving 
in  Congress  with  you.  Senator  Borah  endeared  himself 
to  Bennet  and  Parsons  and  me  when  we  first  went  down 
there,  and  we  are  proud  of  his  having  been  elevated  to 
what  some  people  call  the  Upper  House,  but  which  Joe 
Cannon  always  insisted  upon  calling  the  co-ordinate 
branch.  I  introduce' you  to  Senator  William  E.  Borah, 
who  will  say  something  about  the  Republican  party. 


[45] 


ADDRESS  OF 

Hon.  WILLIAM  E.  BORAH 


Mr.  President,  when  the  returns  came  in  last  Novem- 
ber a  year  ago,  and  it  was  known  that  the  then  dominant 
party  had  carried  but  two  States,  the  opinion  quite  gen- 
erally prevailed  that  one  of  the  most  interesting  and  re- 
markable chapters  in  the  annals  of  political  parties  was 
drawing  to  a  close.  Indomitable  and  aggressive,  direct- 
ing with  remarkable  skill  and  judgment  the  course  of 
government  for  fifty  years,  the  party  now  seemed  near- 
ing  complete  disorganization.  But  the  signs  were  mis- 
read. It  was  not  dissolution,  but  evolution.  This  fearful 
wreck  simply  proved  in  a  grim,  conclusive  way  that  a 
new  era  in  politics  had  been  ushered  in,  that  the  voters 
had  determined  in  their  own  way  that  the  organization 
of  the  party  must  be  at  all  times  the  servant  and  not  the 
master,  that  political  parties,  regardless  of  their  tradi- 
tions and  past  achievements,  must  be  kept  and  conducted 
on  a  high  plane,  and  held  in  touch  with  the  demands  and 
needs  of  the  hour.  Subsequent  events  disclosed  that  the 
latter  interpretation  was  correct. 

The  first  call  to  arms  after  the  defeat  was  out  in  the 
great  State  of  Michigan — out  there  among  those  people 
where,  over  half  a  century  ago,  at  a  meeting  under  the 
oaks,  the  party  was  organized.  In  that  contest,  through 
the  sheer  courage  and  party  devotion  of  the  rank  and 
file,  the  Republican  ticket  won  over  all  competitors.  Not 
only  hundreds  but  thousands  who  recorded  their  votes 
of  protest  in  the  preceding  election  renewed  their  allegi- 
ance to  the  Republican  party.  The  same  thing  in  the 
same  way  happened  in  the  Congressional  election  in 
Maine.  The  spring  registration  in  several  States  dis- 
closed the  same  tendency.    In  the  last  November  election 

r  47i 


The  Republican  Club 

in  the  State  of  New  Jersey  nearly  a  hundred  thousand 
who  had  voted  the  third  ticket  returned;  in  Maryland, 
fifty  thousand  out  of  fifty-seven  thousand.  In  other 
States  the  same  trend  was  equally  marked  and  unmis- 
takable. This  exceptional  showing  was  almost  as  start- 
ling as  the  result  of  the  previous  November  election.  It 
brought  from  the  brilliant  young  chairman  of  the  new 
dominant  party  the  published  statement  that  the  real 
adversary  of  his  party  in  the  next  campaign  would  be  no 
other  than  the  Republican  party. 

To  whom  do  we  owe  this  revival  of  party  strength,  this 
resuscitation  of  party  power?  To  the  organization? 
Certainly  not.  To  leadership,  to  generalship?  Certainly 
not.  Had  some  Sheridan  overtaken  the  routed  forces 
and  called  them  back  to  order  and  victory?  Certainly 
not.  We  owe  it  to  the  party  loyalty,  the  courage,  the 
high  and  steadfast  purpose  of  the  Republican  voters. 
Those  who  had  dared  to  tear  down  dared  to  rebuild,  and 
to  do  so  upon  broad  lines  and  in  harmony  with  the  true 
historic  bent  of  the  organization,  with  past  achievements 
and  future  obligations.  It  was  a  singular  exhibition  of 
self-reliant  citizenship  and  of  party  loyalty.  To  record 
their  protest  and  return  with  such  remarkable  unity  was 
to  place  conviction  and  party  ideals  above  position  and 
power,  and  to  measure  duty  not  by  the  passing  advan- 
tages of  office  or  station,  but  by  the  fundamental  obliga- 
tions of  citizenship.  It  demonstrated  that  to  those  men 
Republicanism  is  not  an  expediency  but  a  vital,  elemental 
principle  of  social  development,  a  distinct  and  positive 
exposition  of  government,  a  potential  agency  of  constant 
advance  and  progress,  recording  from  time  to  time  great 
statutes  and  constructing  great  institution?  of  govern- 
ment, and  that  neither  the  indifferent  selfishness  of  en- 
trenched conservatism,  nor  the  chagrin  and  confusion  of 
defeat,  could  long  change  its  course,  nor  stay  its  progress. 

There  is  no  mistaking  what  all  this  means.     Tt  means 

[48] 


Address  of  Hon.  William  E.  Borah 

that  the  voters  of  the  party  are  too  independent  to  con- 
done what  they  conceive  to  be  a  mistake  or  a  wrong,  and 
too  wise  to  abandon  permanently  the  name,  the  traditions, 
the  prestige  and  honor  that  they  and  their  forbears 
have  established  and  built  up  through  fifty  years  of  re- 
lentless political  warfare.  It  means  that  the  voters  who 
have  been  reared  in  this  world-renowned  school  of  Re- 
publican politics  are  after  all  bound  together  by  a  com- 
mon conviction  and  dominated  by  a  common  faith.  It 
means  they  are  convinceed  that  out  of  this  great  body  of 
voters  is  to  come  the  militant  and  progressive  and  aggres- 
sive Republican  party  of  the  future — that  there  is  no 
stronger  or  more  available  force  for  wise  and  effective 
work  along  progressive  lines  than  those  voters  who  have 
stood  eager  and  restless  in  the  forefront  of  progress  for 
fifty  years — from  the  unshackling  of  a  race  to  the  joining 
in  permanent  wedlock  the  commercial  and  economic 
forces  of  two  oceans.  It  means  that  Republicanism  in 
its  true  concept,  among  and  with  those  who  constitute  its 
real  strength  and  the  bulwark  of  its  power,  is  progress,  is 
liberalism,  is  growth.  It  means  that  no  man  or  class  of  men 
can  turn  the  Republican  party  from  its  true  course  and 
drag  it  down  from  its  exalted  station  among  the  great 
political  factors  of  modern  times,  and  it  means,  more- 
over, that  no  man  or  class  of  men  can  wreck  or  destroy 
it.  The  soldiers  of  Napoleon  drew  their  inspiration  from 
the  presence  of  their  great  commander,  their  endurance 
and  their  daring  seemed  but  the  spell  of  that  incompre- 
hensible genius.  But  the  men  who  followed  Sheridan, 
Sherman  and  Grant,  imbued  with  a  great  cause,  domi- 
nated by  a  great  purpose,  could  have  changed  com- 
manders a  score  of  times  and  still  fought  on  to  victory. 
If  every  assumed  leader  and  every  committeeman  of  the 
party  from  ocean  shore  to  ocean  shore  should  resign  to- 
night and  announce  that  the  hour  of  dissolution  was  at 
hand,  before  the  sun  had  set  upon  another  day  the  rank 

[49] 


The  Republican  Club 

and  file  would  sieze  the  banner  where  it  fell  and  straight- 
way entrust  it  to  loyal  hands. 

Mr.  President,  the  division  at  Chicago  arose  by  reason 
and  on  account  of  an  ancient  and  discredited  method  of 
holding  party  conventions — a  method  in  vogue  with  all 
parties,  but  out  of  date  and  moribund,  nevertheless.  No 
one  was  there  seeking  honor  and  place  at  the  hands  of 
that  convention  who  would  not  have  been  glad  to  utilize 
the  party  had  the  results  been  satisfactory.  Those  who 
afterwards  left  the  party  had  expressed  no  doubt  of  the 
wisdom  of  its  established  policies,  or  the  integrity  and 
purpose  and  progressive  bent  of  its  membership,  or  as 
to  the  efficiency  of  the  party  as  an  instrument  for  pro- 
gressive legislation  and  administration.  The  fact  that 
they  were  there  seeking  honors  at  its  disposal  proved 
conclusively  that  they  were  in  accord  with  its  principle, 
had  faith  in  its  policies,  and  relied  upon  it  as  an  instru- 
mentality of  progressive  advancement.  To  suppose  other- 
wise would  be  to  charge  them  with  duplicity  and  insin- 
cerity, a  charge  which  I  would  be  the  last  to  make.  In 
fact,  it  was  charged  then,  and  it  is  charged  now,  that  the 
majority  of  the  party,  that  is,  the  voters,,  were  one  way  and 
the  organization  another — upon  no  other  theory  could 
the  action  which  followed  be  justified.  I  entertained  and 
I  entertain  that  opinion  myself.  For  these  reasons  some 
of  us  thought  that  the  essential  thing  to  be  done  was  to 
change  the  system,  the  machinery  of  the  party,  in  order 
that  there  might  never  again  be  any  question  as  to  the 
free  play  of  opinion  and  the  free  expression  of  view  of 
the  members,  and  to  make  certain  beyond  peradventure 
the  carrying  out  of  the  conviction  and  the  purposes  of 
that  splendid  body  of  citizenship  which,  from  the  begin- 
ning, has  constituted  the  real  strength  of  the  party.  It 
seemed  to  some  that  it  was  wiser  to  get  out  and  fight 
from  the  outside.  It  seemed  to  others  who  were  equally 
sincere  that  it  was  lacking  in  strategy  and  effectiveness, 

[50] 


Address  of  Hon.  William  E.  Borah 

if  not  in  courage,  to  give  up  the  vantage  of  name  and 
prestige,  of  honor  and  achievement,  when  the  sole  fault 
was  one  of  organization  and  not  in  the  membership  or 
policies.  I  do  not  criticize  those  who  chose  the  former 
method.  For  whatever  charge  may  be  made  as  to  the 
ambitions  of  individuals,  no  honest  man  would  doubt  the 
high  purposes  and  patriotism  of  the  four  million  voters. 
But  I  do  say  that  every  obstacle  which  stood  in  the  way 
of  success  of  the  cause,  as  we  viewed  it,  has  been  com- 
pletely removed.  There  has  never  been  a  time  when 
the  machinery  of  the  party  was  so  completely  subject  to 
the  direction  of  the  voters.  Of  course,  this  will  be  denied 
by  those  who  would  destroy  the  party,  whether  it  does 
right  or  whether  it  does  wrong,  but  it  will  not  be  denied 
by  those  who  investigate  and  sincerely  want  to  see  the 
party  reorganized  and  re-established,  and  made  to  do  the 
service  of  the  people  in  this  country  as  it  performed  that 
service  in  its  best  days.    Let  the  facts  be  submitted. 

For  years  the  question  of  representation  in  the  Repub- 
lican national  convention  has  been  a  disturbing  problem. 
It  was  believed  that  the  South  had  a  vote  in  the  conven- 
tion out  of  all  proportion  to  its  vote  at  the  polls.  It  was  a 
disgraceful  affair  in  its  influence  at  the  convention  which 
nominated  Harrison  the  second  time.  It  was  just  as 
much  of  an  evil  in  1904  and  1908  as  in  191 2.  The  de- 
sired change  was  defeated  in  1904  by  a  small  vote  and 
through  the  influence  of  those  who  afterwards  came  to 
see  its  evils.  But  certainly  that  matter  has  been  disposed 
of.  The  Southern  States  now  have  but  164  votes,  as 
against  819  in  the  convention.  It  seems  to  me  that  upon 
reflection  all  will  concede  that  the  reduction  could  go  no 
further  without  manifest  injustice  to  some  who  are  as 
loyal  and  sincere  Republicans  as  you  will  find  anywhere 
in  the  country.  It  is  a  common  libel  that  Southern  Re- 
publicans are  only  Southern  Federal  officeholders.  But 
while  patronage  works  its  baneful  influence  there  as  else- 

[51] 


The  Republican  Club 

where,  there  are  thousands  of  Southern  Republicans 
who  give  evidence  every  day  of  their  lives  of  a  sincere 
devotion  to  the  principles  of  the  party.  I  am  not  willing 
either  wholly  to  discourage  or  disfranchise  such  men. 
Certainly  those  who  approved  and  utilized  the  action  of 
the  convention  in  1904  and  1908,  at  a  time  when  the 
South  had  its  full  vote,  and  when  there  was  patronage  to 
distribute,  will  have  no  occasion  to  find  fault  with  the 
convention  of  191 6,  so  far  as  this  question  is  concerned, 
since  the  South  has  been  reduced  to  a  minimum,  and 
there  will  be  no  patronage  to  distribute. 

But  that  was  by  no  means  the  controlling  or  vital 
question.  The  vital  thing  was  to  make  the  convention 
wholly  responsive  to  the  will  of  the  voters — to  arrange 
the  machinery  of  the  party  so  as  to  give  free  and  untram- 
meled  sway  to  the  views  and  purposes  of  those  who  must 
win  the  fight  upon  election  day.  The  organization  has, 
therefore,  provided  for  the  recognition  and  seating  of  all 
primary  elected  delegates  upon  the  certificates  of  the 
canvassing  board  within  the  State.  The  National  Com- 
mittee does  not  pass  upon  their  credentials.  There  can 
be,  under  such  circumstances,  no  contest.  The  delegates 
will  come  as  the  unchallenged  representatives  of  the  peo- 
ple to  record  their  votes,  both  as  to  platform  and  candi- 
dates. This  is  in  its  practical  effect  the  national  primary 
and  the  nearest  to  the  national  primary  that  we  will 
likely  have  very  soon.  If  all  parties  in  the  respective 
States  now  urge  primary  laws  for  the  election  of  dele- 
gates to  the  national  convention,  as  all  parties  should,  we 
will  have  in  its  practical  effect  the  national  primary.  We 
will  not  only  have  done  away  with  the  shameless  scenes 
of  Chicago  and  Baltimore,  but  we  will  have  platforms 
which  embody  the  convictions  and  aspirations  of  the 
people,  and  candidates  who  receive  their  nominations 
without  obligations  or  pledges  to  any  interest  or  power 
other  than  the  people  themselves.     The  National  Com- 

[52] 


Address  of  Hon.  William  E.  Borah 

mittee  has  been  deprived  of  all  power  over  primary 
elected  delegates;  they  will  sit  there  like  a  painted  ship 
upon  a  painted  ocean,  just  as  useless  and,  from  an  artistic 
standpoint,  far  less  attractive. 

Some  of  our  friends  want  a  new  platform.  So  do  I. 
But  I  do  not  want  a  new  platform  nearly  as  much  as  I 
want  the  right  kind  of  a  platform,  and  made  under  condi- 
tions which  will  not  give  rise  to  any  doubt  as  to  its  being 
genuine.  Platforms  are  utterly  worthless  and  mislead- 
ing; they  signify  nothing  as  to  the  real  attitude  and  pur- 
pose of  the  party  unless  they  come  as  the  result  of  an 
earnest  and  determined  contest,  under  conditions  which 
admit  of  a  full  expression  of  views,  and  at  a  time  when 
a  great  campaign  is  imminent,  and  the  approaching  con- 
test calls  from  the  workshop  and  the  farm,  from  the 
counting  house,  the  factory  and  the  mine,  those  whose 
sole  business  in  politics  is  to  secure  the  best  that  can  be 
had  for  the  general  good,  who  ask  for  no  place  and  seek 
for  no  power.  These  people  do  not  attend  moot  conven- 
tions or  take  any  considerable  part  in  selecting  hand- 
picked  delegates,  and  yet  a  Republican  convention  with- 
out their  full  and  earnest  views  would  be  a  sham,  a  pre- 
tense. So  far  as  I  am  concerned,  I  do  not  want  a  plat- 
form of  expediency,  a  platform  adopted  in  a  formal 
manner,  even  if  it  reads  right.  I  want  to  know  where 
the  Republican  party  in  fact  stands,  and  is  going  to 
stand  on  these  great  issues.  In  a  moot  convention  you 
could  never  know.  I  want  to  see  a  downright  fight, 
where  there  is  something  more  than  paper  and  ink  and 
sounding  phrases  at  issue,  an  absolute  contest  where  the 
people  take  part,  so  that  when  the  result  is  recorded  we 
will  have  the  real  sentiment  and  the  real  convictions  of 
the  party,  and  knowing  them  we  can  square  ourselves  for 
the  future.  I  want  either  the  inspiration  of  Lodi  or  the 
conclusiveness  of  Waterloo.  I  do  not  want  a  platform 
drawn  by  bosses,  or  even  by  anointed  leaders,  weeks  in 

[53] 


The  Republican  Club 

advance  of  the  convention,  and  carried  like  a  stuccoed 
and  perfumed  Egyptian  mummy  to  the  place  of  meeting 
with  which  to  conjure  the  multitude  for  another  season, 
but  a  living,  breathing  platform,  voicing  the  purposes 
and  hopes  of  men  and  women  who  have  rubbed  against 
the  realities  of  life  and  the  actual  conditions  of  to-day.  I 
made  up  my  mind  long  since  that  if  at  any  time  I  have  to 
abandon  the  name  which  the  sainted  Lincoln  chose  with 
which  to  conjure  the  hosts  of  freedom  and  progress,  if  I 
must  finally  give  over  the  proud  memories  which  cluster 
about  those  days,  it  will  be  after  the  majority  of  the  party 
has  so  spoken  and  upon  questions  of  policy  in  a  contest 
that  no  one  will  ever  misunderstand,  and  at  a  time  when 
there  can  be  no  mistake  as  to  the  issues. 

To  my  way  of  thinking,  politics  is  the  most  serious 
thing  that  can  engage  the  public  attention  of  men.  It  is 
in  the  last  analysis  the  State,  the  government,  burdened 
and  freighted  with  the  concerns  of  an  entire  people.  The 
family,  the  home,  the  social  and  physical  well-being  of 
the  citizen  are,  after  all,  anchored  in  politics,  and  political 
parties  are  therefore  the  only  effective  instruments 
through  and  by  means  of  which  the  people  of  a  represen- 
tative democracy  can  effectuate  their  purposes  or  realize 
as  citizens  their  highest  aspirations.  The  fact  that  some 
men  prostitute  these  instrumentalities  of  government  to 
selfish  and  ignoble  ends,  the  fact  that  political  pharisees 
and  barren  esthetes  draw  back  from  the  stern  conflicts 
where  the  fundamental  rights  of  men  are  hammered  and 
fashioned  into  laws  and  institutions,  does  not  in  the  least 
change  the  proposition  that  through  and  by  means  of 
politics  and  political  organizations  do  the  people  preserve 
their  rights  and  maintain  their  government.  We  can, 
therefore,  afford  to  be  patient,  so  that  when  the  party 
records  its  policies  it  will  be  under  such  circumstances 
that  though  all  men  may  not  accept  them,  no  one  will 
doubt  their  genuineness.    We  can  afford  to  stay  out  of 

[54] 


Address  of  Hon.  William  E.  Borah 

power  for  another  season,  but  we  cannot  afford  as  a 
party  to  face  the  tremendous  problems  which  are  before 
us  until  we  face  them  ri^ht. 

The  next  Republican  National  Convention  will  be  in 
the  hands  and  under  the  control  of  the  voters  of  the  party. 
Those  who  believe  in  the  Republican  party,  who  respect 
its  traditions  and  have  helped  to  make  its  history,  those 
who  cannot  but  feel  a  quickened  pulse  and  a  livelier  sense 
of  civic  pride  at  the  mention  of  the  name  of  the  great 
leaders  of  the  party,  and,  above  all,  those  who,  looking 
to  the  future,  hope  to  take  up  again  the  great  problems 
of  humanity  and  the  tasks  of  government,  may  now  di- 
rect its  course  and  measure  its  destiny.  If,  as  I  believe, 
the  vast  majority  of  the  voters  of  the  party  are  fully  alive 
to  the  demands  and  needs  of  our  present  citizenship;  if, 
as  I  believe,  they  are  in  sympathy  with  the  reforms  which 
conform  to  the  best  interests  of  our  common  country, 
then  nothing  can  prevent  the  party  platform  and  the 
party  candidates  from  becoming  the  embodiment  and  the 
representative  of  those  principles  and  policies.  This  is 
the  contest  to  which  I  look  forward  with  hope ;  yes,  with 
an  abiding  conviction  that  when  the  great  body  of  voters 
have  spoken  and  had  their  views  recorded,  we  will  have 
an  untrammeled  and  unfettered  party,  alert  to  the  duties 
and  capable  of  meeting  the  responsibilities  which  are  now 
before  us  and  upon  us.  I  speak  plainly,  but  I  speak  just 
as  I  feel.  I  am  not  one  of  those  who  believe  that  the 
Republican  party  has  made  no  mistakes,  but  I  am  one  of 
those  who  have  no  doubt  that  under  a  full  and  free  ex- 
pression of  the  voters  it  will  again  become  a  powerful 
instrument  for  good. 

Let  us,  therefore,  have  no  platform  of  compromise, 
and  no  harmony  that  is  not  based  upon  a  common  convic- 
tion. We  want  a  platform  made  at  the  immediate  time,  a 
platform  which  speaks  of  battle  and  conflict,  and  which 
will  record  in  the  harsh  langauge  of  truth  the  actual  con- 

[55] 


The  Republican  Club 

victions  of  the  majority  of  the  Republican  voters.  If 
the  Republican  voters  are  not  progressive  in  the  true, 
sound  sense  of  the  term,  then  the  way  for  some  of  us  is 
clear.  If,  on  the  other  hand,  they  are,  then,  so  far  as  I 
am  concerned,  no  mere  question  of  organization  shall  be 
permitted  to  stand  in  the  way  or  to  drive  me  out  of  the 
party.  There  can  be  no  compromise  which  will  prevent 
us  doing  less  than  our  full  duty  toward  the  problems 
which  are  before  us  and  the  millions  of  our  countrymen 
whose  interests  should  be  our  constant  concern. 

Mr.  President,  when  we  plead  for  a  progressive  Re- 
publican party,  we  do  not  plead  for  fancies,  for  abstrac- 
tions, but  for  nothing  more  and  nothing  less  than  the 
sincere  and  courageous  adjustment  and  application  of 
sound  principles  of  government  to  the  industrial  and 
economic  conditions  of  to-day,  to  the  end  that  this  may 
not  become  a  government  of  the  few,  of  the  rich  and  of 
the  strong,  but  remain  still  and  always  a  government  of 
the  people,  by  the  people,  and  for  the  people.  When  our 
party  put  the  inter-State  commerce  act  upon  the  statute 
books  this  was  denounced  as  Socialism  and  unworkable. 
When  it  put  the  rebate  act  among  our  laws  it  was  decried 
as  visionary  and  impracticable.  When  it  enacted  a  pure 
food  law  it  was  criticized  as  the  last  step  in  paternalism. 
When  the  Sherman  anti-trust  law  was  put  upon  the 
books  it  was  pronounced  by  great  lawyers  as  unenforce- 
able, or  if  enforceable,  unconstitutional.  Wrhen  the  party 
enacted  a  postal  savings  bank  law  and  a  parcels  post  iaw 
these  were  regarded  as  further  evidence  of  reckless  and 
headstrong  paternalism.  When  the  child  labor  bureau 
was  created,  a  solemn  plea  went  up  for  the  integrity  of 
the  family  and  against  the  rude  interference  of  the  State 
with  family  ties.  Now,  sir,  we  ask  for  nothing  more  and 
will  be  reconciled  with  nothing  less  than  the  free,  full 
expression,  and  the  full  flow  of  opinion,  in  party  organi- 
zation and  party  affairs  among  its  voters  and  members, 

[56] 


Address  of  Hon.  William  E.  Borah 

to  the  end  that  this  great  code  of  humane  and  progres- 
sive laws,  of  wise  and  permanent  institutions,  may  be  ex- 
tended, that  the  work  may  go  on  until  political  freedom 
shall  be  at  the  beginning  and  industrial  freedom  at  the 
end  of  the  party  story;  until  monopoly,  ten  thousand 
times  worse  than  black  slavery,  shall  understand  that  be- 
tween it  and  republican  institutions  there  is  eternal  war 
— Mexican  war,  where  all  the  captured  are  slain  without 
the  benefit  of  clergy. 

Mr.  President,  I  have  neither  the  time  nor  the  dispo- 
sition to  go  into  a  discussion  of  particular  issues.  Per- 
haps this  is  not  the  occasion,  certainly  not  at  this  late 
hour.  I  can  only  say  in  conclusion  that  Republicanism, 
as  I  understand  it  in  its  real  scope  and  purpose,  is  a  the- 
ory of  government,  an  organic  and  vital  belief  in  liberty 
and  justice,  under  the  domination  of  order  and  law,  striv- 
ing for  the  best  that  can  be  had  as  fast  as  it  can  be  had 
in  national  growth  and  progress.  It  believes  in  our  form 
of  government  and  that  under  its  faithful  administration, 
and  in  harmony  with  its  tremendous  sweep  and  power, 
the  human  family  may  reach  its  highest  state  of  culture 
and  contentment.  It  reveres  the  work  of  the  fathers  and 
pays  feeling  tribute  to  those  who  forfeited  all  for  the 
Union,  but  it  lives  not  alone  in  the  past.  It  looks  forward 
with  eager  confidence  to  the  duties  and  responsibilities 
of  the  future.  It  will  not  tear  down,  it  will  not  destroy, 
but  it  will  go  forward  and  meet  the  problems  upon  whose 
solution  depends  the  happiness  and  industrial  freedom 
of  countless  thousands.  It  wars  upon  no  legitimate  in- 
dustry, it  closes  no  mills,  it  recognizes  no  distinction  in 
race,  but  it  believes  now,  as  it  believed  fifty  years  ago, 
that  this  government,  and  this  goodly  land,  which  a 
bountiful  Providence  has  given  us,  belongs  to  all,  to  the 
many  and  not  the  few,  white  and  black,  rich  and  poor; 
and  that  the  supreme  question  of  the  hour  is  not  alone  the 
making  of  wealth,  but  also  its  fair  and  equitable  distribu- 

[57] 


The  Republican  Club 

tion.  It  believes  with  its  first  great  seer  and  prophet, 
that  "capital  has  its  rights  which  are  worthy  of  protec- 
tion," but  that  "labor  is  prior  to  and  the  superior  of 
capital."  That  life  is  more  than  riches,  and  humanity 
more  than  machinery.  It  rejects  the  Draconian  code, 
based  on  modern  materialism,  that  human  suffering  and 
social  misery  are  the  natural  fruits  of  human  progress. 
It  repudiates  the  doctrine  of  let  well  enough  alone  as  the 
maxim  of  intellectual  cowards  and  entrenched  privilege, 
concealing  beneath  its  gloss  of  peace  and  contentment  the 
elements  of  class  domination  and  national  decay.  Finally, 
sir,  it  faces  the  future  not  in  pessimism  and  despair,  but 
with  an  unfaltering  faith  in  republican  institutions,  and 
the  judgment  and  wisdom  of  the  people,  as  from  time  to 
time  with  brave  and  patient  step  they  measure  up  to  the 
work.  When  you  reach  down  into  the  hearts  of  the  mil- 
lions of  Republican  voters,  men  and  women  whose  devo- 
tion and  foresight  and  patriotism  have  made  this  marvel- 
ous history  of  the  last  fifty  years,  you  will  find  written 
there  these  broad  and  hopeful  convictions,  which  are 
bound  in  the  end  to  have  sway,  bound  in  the  end  to  direct 
the  party,  and  the  sooner  all  who  doubt  or  hold  back 
understand  this  and  stand  out  of  the  line  of  fire,  the  better 
for  all  concerned. 


[58  1 


GUESTS  OF 
^he    T^epublican   Club 

OF  THE  CITY  OF  NEW  YORK 


President's  Table 

Honorable  SAMUEL  S.  KOENIG 
General  HORACE  PORTER 
Honorable  WILLIAM  BARNES 
General  BENJAMIN  F.  TRACY 
Doctor  JOHN  HOUSTON  FINLEY 
Honorable  NATHAN  GOFF 
Honorable  J.  VAN  VECHTEN  OLCOTT 
Honorable  EDWARD  C.  STOKES 
Honorable  WILLIAM  E.  BORAH 
Honorable  CHAUNCEY  M.  DEPEW 
Reverend  WILLIAM  CARTER.  D.D. 
Honorable  LOUIS  STERN 


I  59  J 


Members  of  the  Club  and  their  Guests 

Alphabetically  Arranged 


Alexander,  J.  F. 
Arnold,  Lynn  J. 
Armstrong,  Egbert  J. 
Applegate,  J.  B. 
Austin,  George  C. 
Allen,  William 
Allison,  Bedford 
Armstrong,  John  H. 
Ackerly,  Dana  T. 
Addoms,  Mortimer  C. 
Addoms,  Jr.,  Mortimer  C. 
Agnew,  George  B. 
Allen,  Rowland  D. 

Baumann,  Gustav 

Blanchard,  James  A. 

Bonynge,  Robert 

Boyd,  James 

Ballard,  R.  W. 

Bloch,  Philip 

Barry,  James  V. 

Beers,  George  E. 

Boyle,  John,  Jr. 

Bird,  Edward  Dimon 

Brewer,  Reuben  G. 

Bickford,  L.  M. 

Brodmerkel,  Charles,  Jr. 

Brookfield,  Frank 

Butler,  T.  E. 

Burns,  M.  F. 

Bronson,  Miles 

Becker,  James  H. 

Bent,  F.  P. 

Bedell,  Walter  E. 

Bernheimer,  Charles  L. 

Bernheimer  Chas.  L.    (guest) 


Bernheimer  Chas.  L.    (guest) 

Beyer,  Herman  W. 

Bliven,  H.  N. 

Bralower,  Henry  G. 

Braun,  Marcus 

Brookfield,  Henry  M. 

Brooks,  Franklin 

Brown,  James  D. 

Brown,  J.  Adams 

Brough,  Alexander 

Brush,  Edward  F. 

Brush,  Edward  F.   (guest) 

Burns,  William  G. 

Burns,  Kenneth 

Burns,  Grant 

Barnes,  Hon.  William 

Benjamin,  George  P. 

Bennet,  William  S. 

Birrell,  Henry 

Biglin,    Bernard 

Boomer,  L.  M. 

Borah,  Hon.  William  E. 

Brainerd,  Ira  H. 

Breed,  James  McV. 

Brewster,  Henry  D. 

Brice,  Wilson  B. 

Briggs,  Waldo  C. 

Brown,  J.  Alexander 

Buckley,  D.  P. 

Burdett,   Lester   C. 

Brewster,  S.  D. 

Bulkley,  Frank 

Catlin,  Donald  C. 
Chapman,  H.  Livingston 
Cornwall,  A.  Duncan 


[61] 


The  Republican  Club 


Clark,  W.  H. 
Clarke,  C.  Howell 
Clift,  Edward  H. 
Clark,  Edward  S.    (guest) 
Clark,  Edward  S. 
Clark,  Stephen  C. 
Cleary,  Robert  C. 
Clarke,  John  Proctor 
Clarke,  Robert  P. 
Carter,  Howard  Cordis 
Chambers,  Hilary  R. 
Clarke,  T.  E. 
Conklin,  William  G. 
Cooper,  Morris 
Crumbie,  Frank  R. 
Calder,  William  M. 
Campbell,  Samuel  S. 
Campbell,  Alexander  V. 
Cannon,  James  G, 
Carlton,  Newcomb 
Carr,  William 
Carroll,  Lauren 
Carter,  D.D.,  Rev.  William 
Chilvers,  William 
Clowry,  Robert  C. 
Cochran,  Richard  B. 
Cogswell,  C.  V.  R. 
Cohen,  William  N. 
Cook,  Frank  A. 
Coney,  Richard  Grey 
Corning,  Frederick  G. 
Cocks,  Wm.  W. 
Canfield,  A.  L. 
Cobden,  Rev.  Richard 

Duckham,  W.  H. 
Day,  Ralph  A. 
Day,  Ralph  A.   (guest) 
Day,  Ralph  A.   (guest) 
Day,  Ralph  A.  (guest) 
Day,  Ralph  A.  (guest) 
Debevoise,  Thos.  M: 
Duft,  Carl  E. 


Duffield,  Howard 
Davis,  Henry  Clark 
Day,  Benjamin  M. 
Durand,  John  S. 
Deeves,  J.  Henry 
Doane,  George  W. 
Deeves,  Lester  P. 
Dowling,  W.  S. 
Dale,  Francis  C. 
Dale,  Alfred  G. 
Dawson,  Allan 
Dawson,  William  T. 
Delamater,  Roswell  A. 
Dargeon,  W.  J. 
Davidson,  Matthew  H. 
Depew,  Hon.  Chauncey  M. 
Depew,  Chauncey  M.,  Jr. 
DeWitt,  A.  H. 
Dutton,  John  A. 
Duval,  C.  Louis 
Duffield,  Rev.  Howard 

Ellsworth,  O.  M. 
Emery,  Joseph  H. 
Emery,  Alfred  D. 
Englander,  Sam 
Emery,  E.  W. 
Estabrook,  Henry  D. 
Einstein,  William 
Egan,  Martin 
Eilert,  E.  F. 

Frank,  Jacob 
Friedman,  Lester  M. 
Flanders,  Walter  C. 
Fisher,  W.  G. 
Fallows,  Edward  H. 
Fourman,  Paul  G. 
Felsinger,  William 
Ford,  John 
Frenkel,  Emil 
Frenkel,  Emil  (guest) 
Fisher,  Irving  R.,  Jr. 


62] 


Members  and  their  Guests 


Fairchild,  John  F. 
Foraker,  Burch 
Fairchild,  Benjamin  L. 
Forcheimer,  David  S. 
Fairchild,  Hon.  Samuel  W. 
Ferris,  Frank  A. 
Ferris,  Frank  A.,  Jr. 
Feiber,  Samuel  L. 
Finch,  Edward  R. 
Fleming,  John  J. 
Folks,  Ralph 
Fowler,  Charles  A. 
Frank,  Lawrence  D. 
Finley,  Dr.  John  Houston 

Gibbs,  Herbert  H. 
Goodrich,  Edward  I. 
Guenther,  Paul 
Green,  John  Arthur 
Goldstein,  Emanuel 
Guggenheim,  Simon 
Guggenheim,  William 
Gerhard,  John  G. 
Gruber,  Abraham 
Goldsmith,  Arthur  J. 
Guenther,  Rudolph 
Griffith,  William  M. 
Gardner,  George  A. 
Goldsticker,  Samuel 
Goldsticker,  William 
Grismer,  Joseph  R. 
Green,  Frank  R. 
Gilman,  Theodore  P. 
Gilman,  Theodore  P.,  Jr. 
Gerry,  James  L. 
Gallagher,  George  B. 
German  Herold 
Green,  H.  T.  S. 
Gleason,  Albert  H. 
Goff,  Hon.  Nathan 
Goff,  Secy.  Sen. 
Griswold,  I.  H. 


Hamilton,  Alexander 
Hartman,  Paul 
Haviland,  Merritt  E. 
Heide,   Henry 
Hollander,  Joseph  L. 
Holmes,  Edwin  T. 
Holmes,  Bayard  P. 
Hoops,  Herman  W. 
Hubbard,  Thomas  H. 
Humphrey,  A.  B.  (guest) 
Humphrey,  Andrew  B. 
Haldenstein,  I. 
Haldenstein,  I.   (guest) 
Haldenstein,  I.   (guest) 
Haldenstein,  I.   (guest) 
Haldenstein,  I.   (guest) 
Haldenstein,  I.   (guest) 
Haldenstein,  I.   (guest) 
Haldenstein,  I.   (guest) 
Halstead,  Jacob 
Holmes,  Rev.  James  E. 
Hammond,  John  Henry 
Herrington,  Arthur 
Holden,  L.  C. 
Housman,  Clarence  J. 
Housman,  Frederick 
Hilles,  Charles  D. 
Huntington,  S.  V.  V. 
Holmes,  Robert  A. 
Haynes,  R.  T. 
Hayward,  Harry  W. 
Hoffman,  Charles  F. 
Hoffman,  Wm.  M.  V. 
Heydt,  Charles  E. 
Heydt,  Herman  A. 
Hurley,  W.  M. 
Hurley,  J.  J. 
Haskins,  Bert 
Horner,  Richard  W. 
Howe,  W.  P. 
Hamburger,  Samuel  B. 
Henszen,  Samuel  A. 


[63  J 


The  Republican  Club 


Irwin,  John  B. 


Johnson,  Reginald  M. 
Jones,  William  A.,  Jr. 
Jones,  Edwin  A. 
Johnston,  Rufus  P. 
Jenkins,  W.  B. 
Jarman,  George  W. 

Kenyon,  Allen  D. 
Kudlich,  Herman  C. 
Kaufman,  E.  H. 
Kuroy,  J.  A. 
Kost,  Fred  W. 
Kennedy,  M.  A. 
Kennedy,  John  S. 
Kellogg,  Evans  P. 
Kavanaugh,  George  W. 
Kathan,  Reid  A. 
Kavanaugh,  Frederick  W. 
Kerley,  Charles  Gilmore 
Kirby,  Thomas  E. 
Koenig,  Hon.  Samuel  S. 
Kroder,  John 
Kelley,  Walter  E. 

Little,  Luther  B. 
Leary,  William 
Lauterbach,  Edward 
Leslie,  Warren 
Logan,  James 
Levenson,  Joseph 
Levy,  Aaron  J. 
Lambert,  M. 
Lambert,  C.  I. 
Lambert,  M.  H. 
Lewis,  Richard  J. 
Lewis,  R.  V. 
Lewis,  William  D. 
Leaycraft,  J.  Edgar 
Lecompte,  Frank 
Leary,  George 
Leeser,  Jacob 


Lehmaier,  J.  S. 
Leikauf,  John  E. 
Loeb,  Jr.,  William 
Lord,  Chester  S. 
Lowerre,  George  H. 
Lyon,  F.  A. 
Little,  John 
Lawrence,  James 

Manville,  H.  E. 
Merriam,  Arthur  L. 
Merriam,  Arthur  L.  (guest) 
Merriam,  Arthur  L.  (guest) 
Meighan,  Burton  C. 
Meury,  Edward  G. 
Mook,  Harry  B. 
Montgomery,  John  C. 
Miller,  William  D. 
Murray,  John  T. 
Metz,  C.  H. 
Milliken,  Harry 
Moody,  Lawrie 
Moore,  Thomas  Morrell 
Marks,  Marcus  M. 
Maas,  Charles  O. 
Mack,  Harry  W. 
March,  James  E.,  Sr. 
March,  Joseph  V. 
March,  William  McKinley 
Marple,  Wilbur  B. 
Maynard,  Reuben  Leslie 
Mead,  Robert  G. 
Miller,  William  F. 
Minor,  James  A. 
Mitchell,  William 
Moody,  William  J. 
More,  Taylor 
Muelberger,  Eric 
Mulford,  Robert 
Melville,  Henry 
Maples,  Edward  T. 
Murray,  A.  G. 
Murray.  A.  G.  (guest) 


[64] 


Members  and  their  Guests 


McConaughy,  John 
McCook,  Gen.  Anson  G. 
McCall,  W.  Johnstone 
McDermott,  E.  H. 
McConville,  Arthur 
McGee,  Walter  C. 
McMillan,  Emerson 
McLellan,  M.  N. 
McLellan,  Hugh 
McGay,  Frank  B. 
McDonough,  J.  B. 
McCoy,  D.  B. 
McMillan,  Samuel 
MacGuire,  C.  J. 
Macdonald,  R.  H. 
MacRossie,  Rev.  Allan 

Newhouse,  Edgar  L. 

Nealley,  C.  H. 

Ne  Collins,  J.  E. 

New  York  American 

New  York  Associated  Press 

N.  Y.  City  News  Association 

New  York  Times 

New  York  Tribune 

New  York  Press 

Nicoll,  Benjamin 

Nixon,  Charles  R. 

Nussbaum,  Myer 

Obermeyer,   Theodore 
Olcott,  Hon.  J.  Van  Vechten 
Olcott,  J.  V.  V.  (guest) 
Olcott,  W.  M.  ,K. 
O'Neil,  Oscar 
Owen,  Carl  M. 

Patrick,  Charles  H. 

Pearl,  Abe 

Peary,  Rear-Admiral  Robt.  E, 

Pederson,  V.  C. 

Pinner,  Henry  W. 

Porter,  General  Horace 


Piercy,  Henry  Clay 
Porter,  Eugene  H. 
Prime,  William  O. 
i/eugnet,  Ramsey 
Parker,  Robert  A. 
Prince,  Henry  A. 
Parsons,  Herbert 
Patterson,  W.  F. 
Pope,  C.  A. 
Patten,  Gilbert 
Porter,  Dr.  William  H. 
Porter,  William  C. 
Pallister,  Claude  V. 
Porter,  Wm.  H. 
Plaut,  Gustav 

Rockfeller,  Percy  A. 
Rosenberg,  Ely 
Runkel,  Louis 
Roberts,  James  S. 
Reed,  Louis  F. 
Runsheim,  Joseph 
Reid,  G.  W. 
Ross,  Rev.  Dr. 
Reid,  Wallace 
Runk,  Charles  A. 
Rhodes,  Bradford 
Russell,  Charles  M. 
Reed,  F.  A. 
Rowe,  Louis  H. 
Rubin,  J.  Robert 
Richter,  Theodore  B. 
Reynolds,  Marc 
Ryerson,  E.  J. 
Rosenberg,  K.  Henry 
Rose,  Wm.  H. 
Ryerson,  E.  J. 
Rodewald,  W.  M. 

Starr,  Charles  P. 
Stern,  Hon.  Louis 
Stokes,  Hon.  Edward  C. 
Staats-Zeitung 
Sheffield,  James  R. 


[65] 


The  Republican  Club 


Shonts,  Theodore  P. 

Sickels,  John  S. 

Smith,  Herbert  W. 

Smith,  R.  A.  C. 

Stafford,  V.  H. 

Stewart,  John  W. 

Stockton,  Sanford  D.,  Jr. 

Sutro,  Richard 

Swart,  Frank 

Smith,  Addison  T. 

Sloane,  William  J. 

Sigsbee,  Rear-Ad.  Charles  D. 

Swartz,  Harry  R. 

Sterne,  Joseph  J. 

Smith,  A.  W. 

Stalp,  W.  F. 

Sweeney,  R.  C. 

Stevens,  S.  W. 

Short,  Warren  F. 

Sleicher,  John  A. 

Stern,  Leopold 

Stern,  Leopold  (guest) 

Seligman,  Paul  N. 

Stryker,  Lloyd  Paul 

Spiegelberg,  F. 

Smoot,  J.  Samuel 

Stewart,  Judd 

Sykes,  H.  E. 

Stern,  Melville  A. 

Strauss,  Frank  V. 

Sternberger,  Maurice  M. 

Snow,  Elbridge  G.,  Jr. 

Snow,  Elbridge  G. 

Snyder,  J.  Joseph 

Sternau,  Sigmund 

Schwersee,    B. 

Seligman,  Isaac  N. 

Sanford,  Arthur  H. 

Tatnall,  Henry 
The  Herald 
The  Sun 
The  World 


Tobey,  Harry  G. 
Thurber,  Howard  F. 
Tully,  William  J. 
Topakyan,  H.  H. 
Towne,  Paul  R. 
Tyner,  C.  L. 
Thorburn,  A.  M. 
Tufts,  F.  E. 
Taft,   Henry  W. 
Totty,  Charles  H. 
Tanner,  Frederick  C. 
Thomas,  John  Lloyd 
Thornton,    Thomas 
Tannenbaum,   Moses 
Tanner,   Wilson   P. 
Turner,  Wm.  L. 
Tracy,  Gen.  Benjamin  F. 
Van   Slochen,   Herman 

Vernon,  F.  Joseph 

Vesper,  Karl  H. 

Van  Leer,  Edward  S. 

Van  Amringe,  Augustus  J. 

Van  Amringe,  A.  J.  (guest) 

Van  Amringe,  A.  J.  (guest) 

Ver  Planck,  William  G. 

Vanamee,  William 

Van  Amringe,  Augustus  Y. 

Weeks,  Frank  B. 
Weinman,  George  A. 
Wentz,  William  F. 
Wetmore,  Edmund 
Wheeler,  Herbert  L. 
White,  Martin  J. 
Wickersham,  George  W. 
Wilcox,  William  R. 
Williams,  William 
Wolff,  Herman  H 
Wood,  John  H. 
Woodbury,  W.  B. 
Wright,  H.  J. 
Whiteside,  George  W. 


66] 


Members  and  their  Guests 


Ward,  Cabot 
Woodward,  Collin  H. 
Watterson,  F.  W. 
Wilson,  M.  L. 
Wollman,  Henry 
Webber,  Joseph  F. 
Weinz,  Theodore  A.  H. 
Winter,  Charles 
Walker,  W.  A.  G. 
Werner,  William  E. 
Wandling,  James  L. 
Wolf,  Alexander 
Wheeler,  William  J. 
Washburn,  William  T. 
Williams,  H.  Evans 
Wakeman,  Wilbur  F. 
Wilder,  F.  E. 
Williams,  G.  H. 


Wadhams,  William  H. 
Waterman,  Frank  D. 
Waterman,  F.  S. 
Welch,  Winthrop  A. 
West,  William  T. 
White,  Chandler 
Ward,  F.  F. 
White,  George  B. 
Winter,  Clarence 
Winterburn,  Frederick  W. 

Yates,  C.  H. 
Yawger,  John  F. 
Yereance,  James 
Young,  William 

Zeller,  Lorenz 


[67 


The  Republican  Club 


LADIES 

Guests  of  Members  of  the  Club 

Alphabetically  Arranged 


Allen,  Mrs.  William 
Allison,  Miss  Frances  M. 
Allison,  Mrs.  Bedford 

Belcher,  Miss  M.  E. 
Bent,  Mrs.  F.  P. 
Battershall,   Mrs. 
Bliven,   Mrs.   H.   N. 
Braun,   Mrs.   Marcus 
Brown,  Mrs.  James  D. 
Brown,  Mrs.  J.  Adams 
Burnett,  Miss  Charlotte 
Brooks,   Mrs.   Franklin 

Cannon,  Miss  Grace 
Carter,  Mrs.  William 
Clark,  Miss  E.  M. 
Cobbett,  Miss  Florence  A. 
Conklin    Mrs.  William  G. 

Day,  Mrs.  Ralph  A. 
Dawson,  Mrs.  Allan 
Dawson,  Mrs.  William  T. 
Drake,  Miss  Helen 

Einstein,  Mrs.    Emanuel 

Einstein,  Miss 
Feeney,  Miss  Susan  A. 
Friedman,  Miss  Minnie 


Gilman,    Mrs.   Theodore   P. 
Gilman,  Mrs.  Theodore  P.,  Jr. 
Gerry,  Mrs.  James  L. 
Gallagher,  Mrs  George  B. 

Holmes,   Mrs.  Robert  A. 
Harberle,  Miss  Leonora  L. 
Hoffman,  Mrs.  Charles  F. 
Hoffman,  Mrs.  Wm.  M.  V. 
Haynes    Mrs.  R.  T. 

Irwin,  Mrs.  John  B. 

Johnson,  Mrs.  Reginald  M. 
Jackson,  Miss  Lyllian  Audrey 
Jones,  Mrs.  Edwin  A. 

Kavanaugh,  Mrs.  George  W. 

Leaycraft,  Mrs.  J.  Edgar 
Lockwood,  Miss  Priscilla 
Lauterbach,  Miss  Alice 
Lansdowne,  Miss 

Milliken,  Mrs.  Harry 
March,  Miss  Eugenie 
March,  Miss  Olive 
Mahoney,  Miss  Agnes 
Mack,  Mrs.  Rita 
Magee,  Miss  A.  F. 


[69 


The  Republican  Club 


Marks,  Mrs.  Marcus  M. 
McDonough  Mrs.  J.  B. 
Moody,  Mrs.  William  J. 

Newport,  Miss  Mary  M. 

Olcott,  Mrs.  J.  V.  V. 

Patten,  Mrs.  Gilbert 
Porter,  Mrs.  William   H. 
Porter,  Mrs.  William    C. 
Rosenberg,  Mrs.  K.  Henry 

Starkey,  Mrs.  E.  G. 
Steele,  Miss  Lila 
Steele,  Miss  Helen 


Steele,  Miss  Ruth 
Slauson,  Mrs.  E.  F. 
Sloane,  Mrs.  William  J. 
Short,  Mrs.  Warren  F. 
Slack,  Miss  Marguerite 
Schwersee,  Mrs.  B. 
Spingarn   Mrs. 

Talcott,  Miss  Grace 
Tanner,  Mrs.  Wilson  P. 

Weir,  Miss  C.  M. 
Wandling,  Mrs.  James  L. 
Wilke,  Mrs.  J.  W. 
Wilke,  Miss 
Wolf,  Mrs.  Alexander 
Wheeler,  Mrs.  William  J. 


[70] 


M 


enu 


HUITRES  DE  SMITH  ISLAND 

POTAGE  WINDSOR  A  L'ANGLAISE 

RADIS  OLIVES  CELERI  AMANDES 

MEDAILLON  DE  BASS,  SAUCE  D'ECREVETTES 
POMMES  DE  TERRE  A  LA  PARISIENNE 

COQUILLE  DE  RIS  DE  VEAU  ET  CHAMPIGNONS  FRAIS 

MIGNON  DE  FILET  DE  BOEUF,  SAUCE  COLBERT 
POMMES  DE  TERRE  CHATEAU  HARICOTS  VERTS  SAUTES 

SORBET  DE  FANTAISIE 

POITRINE  DE  PINTADE  ROTIE  EN  CASSEROLE 
SALADE  WALDORF  AUX  PIMENTS  DOUX 

RUCHE  DE  MIEL  GLACEE 
GATEAUX  ASSORTIS 

CAFE 

APOLLINARIS 
PALL  MALL  CIGARETTES 

PARTAGASl 

^CIGARS 
LA  MEGA    J 


G.  H.   MUMM  &  CO.  EXTRA  DRY 
G.  H.  MUMM  &  CO.  CORDON  ROUGE 
SANDERSON'S  MOUNTAIN  DEW  WHISKEY 
A  LA  CARTE 


[71] 


-//.  tool-  c?3V.  OSJ03